Continuation of virtual dissections

The easiest way to use the frog guts dissection simulation was by doing a google search on Frog Dissection Games. Through this search I came up with a website called http://www.roketoyun.com/frog-dissection.asp and it allows you to virtually use tools to cut open a frog and identify 5 or six organs. in my opinion, pretty lame.

The students don't get a feel for the pressure they need to apply to the instruments, nor can they feel how hard or soft they need to use an instrument like a scalpel to cut away the organs in order to identify those underneath.

What sort of generation of people are we raising that students get there memorable experiences through virtual reality. After reviewing some of the free online simulations I say, "Let the squemish sit out the activities that require actual human presence!" Do the virtual stuff for home work!

Real!

Fake!!! See the difference.

Virtual Dissections

In response to student distaste for actual dissections, I'd like to post some links to virtual dissections.

Many of the students became ill and carried on as if I were asking them to cut up up live human beings. These students were sent to the library to complete Amphibian chapter questions from the text. needless to say, this activity was not interactive.

Here is a review of several websites that allow students to see how to dissect a  frog for comparative anatomy purposes.
Virtual Frog Dissection

www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs/BL.../BL_16.html 

This website uses computer generated, 3-D images to demonstrate the dissection procedure and location of organs once the abdominal muscles are penetrated. What is really nice about this website is that the student may play video segments that go through the dissection step by step.

http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/frog_alternative.html

The above link is a nice alternative lesson using the Virtual Frog Dissection above. There are nice slide shows with labels on completing a frog dissection. 

 Many of the online dissection websites I visited were just plain lame. For example, froguts.com is impossible to navigate. No matter what clicked on, I was lead to dead end pages. I did however reach pages that were advertisements for software that will probably become obsolete tomorrow.