Thursday, April 5, 2012

Frog Dissection 21st Century Way


Frog Dissection - 
So real you can almost smell the Formaldehyde! 

Frog Dissection is a very realistic app that goes through all the steps of dissecting a frog.  Students start by pinning the frog specimen to the virtual dissection tray.  Using the scissors, scalpel, and forceps, students methodically dissect the Frog.  Students lift the liver lobes with the forceps, which shows all the internal organs.  Tap on the organs to learn more information on the organ. The organ is in 3D and can be rotated.  

Additionally, there are eight other sections to explore including Frog Lifecycle, All About Frogs, Human vs. Frog, Wet Lab Process, Quiz, Internal Organs, Video, Types of Frogs, and Interactive Activities.  Each of these sections contains interesting facts, images, and videos to learn more about frogs.  

We used this app with 7th grade science students.  It was definitely a hit!  Students used the iPads in groups of  3-5 and dissected the frog, learned about frogs, and also took the quiz.  This app took them places their book never could!  They were engaged, curious, and learning the whole class period.  The app, Frog Dissection, is $4.99 and is not and app within and app!  Here is the link to the app.

One of the unexpected outcomes was the amount of learning that took place in the virtual dissection which made the real dissction the next day go so much smoother.

"Students knew what the organs looked like before they began dissecting the frogs, " Kristie Kuhn, middle school science teacher said.  "The real dissection day went very smoothly."

Check out this YouTube Video to see them in action!  
Written by Ann Feldmann @annfeldmann1

No comments:

Post a Comment