Monday, April 2, 2012

Frog Dissection

**Please don't proceed if you prefer not to see the innards of amphibians**

Gavin jumped at the chance to dissect a frog when told him about the class, only to develop some hesitations on the way there about blood and any disturbances to his olofactory sense. The class was offered at the South Orange/Maplewood Adult School, and at the price of $29, (and never having to order a lab-grown, plastic wrapped frog and watch it done on my kitchen island), I thought it was a bargain.

The instructor was a retired teacher and currently teaching science curriculum at Liberty Science Center. He gave a little "amphibian" background, clear instructions and lots of info to the kids about what they were seeing.

A friend of Gavin's was also in attendance, which seemed to be fun for them to be there together. 

The frogs hardly smelled at all and their blood was replaced by injectable latex. It was a pretty clean affair. If you're looking for an even cleaner version of this and you have an iPad - check this out. The kids were instructed to do the standard cuts that we had watched previously on youtube. After that was the identification and removal of the major organs. Gavin liked the process and became interested in the skin, bones and muscles, as well. (that is the only nice way I can think to say that he did more cutting than really necessary


This was 'hands-on' learning at it's best and a good introduction to anatomy. The instructor promised us a cow eye dissection as the next class. Maybe I'll send Dennis to that one.

4 comments:

  1. Ugh...when I was in high school and we had to dissect a frog, all of the kids in my little lab team were so excited--the boys could not wait for the opoortunity and kept grossing the girls out with how they were going to do it! The day came, the frog was in front of us, spread out with pins and those boys could not make themselves make the first cut. I--the person who kept saying I wanted to be absent that day -- end up grabbing the scalpel thing and slicing that poor sucker open. lol.

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  2. My lab partner wanted to be a surgeon like her parents...I only did the writing.lol

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