District News

Middle School science students look forward to frog dissection

 

May, 2011

 

"I've waited to do this since the third grade. I've heard about it, and now I can do it."

That's how seventh grade life science student Brandon Barker felt about the frog dissection he participated in at Canajoharie Middle School Monday.

This week, the students in Kathleen Bowerman's class are dissecting frogs as part of a body systems unit they're studying. On Friday, students participated in a virtual dissection, and on Monday, they participated in the real thing.

Mrs. Bowerman said the lesson is one of the highlights of the year and helps teach students what they can't see in a book.

"We just got done with a unit on the body systems. I go over five human systems and we study the diagrams and the functions of all of them." she said.

"You can't really see how things operate until you see it for yourself. A frog's system is similar to our respiratory, digestive and cardiovascular systems.

"We study the mouth, small and large intestine and we look at the frog's heart and they see how large the vessels are compared to the size of the body."

Brandon Young said he's looked forward to dissecting a frog since the beginning of the year. When it was time, he put on rubber gloves and watching intently as Mrs. Bowerman helped him.

Although some students may be squeamish at first, they usually come around Mrs. Bowerman said.

"One student said 'thank you for making me do this,'" she said. "The kids look forward to this. They also ask me if they can name the frog. They can have fun with it, but they have to be respectful because it was a living thing."

Her class is also raising chicks in the back of the class. When they hatch, she plans to give them to students who can take them home and raise them as chickens.