SYNTHETIC SCIENCE
Villanova biology students less squeamish with virtual frog dissection
The usual squeals of disgust and apprehensive looks were missing from the Grade 10 biology class at Villanova Wednesday as they prepared to dissect a frog.
Students in each group actually leaned in to get a better look.
Instead of taking a scalpel to a slimy, chemically preserved amphibian, these students were pulling out organs from a synthetic frog ready and willing to share knowledge about its anatomy and biology over and over again.
Through a partnership with the University of Windsor’s Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods (CCAAM), the Windsor-essex Catholic District School Board will phase out frog and fetal pig dissection over the next two years.
“This is a very, very unique experience,” said Dr. Charu Chandrasekera, who oversees the CCAAM lab at the university. “I believe it’s the first of its kind in Canada for an entire school board to decide to move to 21st century technology.”
Through Chandrasekera’s fundraising and sponsorship efforts, all eight WECDSB secondary schools have been supplied with faux frog dissection kits as well as accompanying software and an augmented reality
T-shirt that allows students to study respiratory, digestive and circulatory systems when paired with a human anatomy app.
“Definitely, I’m really squeamish with things like that so working with these (dissection) kits, it’s not gross,” said 15-yearold Lorrhea Marion.
“I can see it for myself, put it together for myself and learn a lot more.”
Fellow student Olivia Berg also preferred the synthetic frog to the real version.
“I feel like if people have a fear of germs or if they’re really afraid of (a dead frog) they’re not going to be able to touch them or learn as much,” Berg said. “This is way better.”
Gisele Jobin, the board’s science curriculum consultant, agrees.
“This gives our students the opportunity to keep learning,” said Jobin who was in the Villanova lab to watch the students break out the kits. “With frogs you have them for one day and you throw them away. This gives them more opportunity to learn and you can put them back together. That’s a big bonus. There’s a lot more learning that can happen here.”
Dan Fister, the board’s executive superintendent of innovation and experiential learning, first spoke with Chandrasekera a year ago about eliminating animal dissection from the high school curriculum.
“This technology helps us learn in different ways we never thought possible before,” Fister said. “And students can achieve the same learning expectations.”
In her presentation to the class, Chandrasekera noted how countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Argentina and Israel have completely banned animal testing while others are moving away from the practice. One of her graphics noted that since dissections became part of the classroom experience in the 1920s in North America, between six to 10 million animals have been killed for that purpose alone.
As an added bonus to Wednesday’s presentation, the University of Windsor team also brought along its virtual dissection table, one of just five in Canada. Its sophisticated 3D anatomy visualization system provides the user with the same experience as working on an actual cadaver.
Chandrasekera said the table was developed at Stanford University and features images from four human cadavers.
Chandrasekera and her roving scientific team have previously visited four other high schools to introduce the faux frogs and show the dissection table.