By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Students in Melissa Rice’s Union City High School biology classes ended the year with a traditional lesson.
The preparation for and dissection of frogs highlighted the final few weeks of classes following class EOCs.
One week was spent on classification and understanding the characteristics of Amphibians. Students then spent a week learning the body systems within a frog and comparing them to humans.
The classes studied the frogs’ external and mouth anatomy, skeletal and nervous systems. They also looked closely into their digestive systems, excretory and reproductive systems, and circulatory and respiratory systems.
Students were surprised to learn all the things humans had in common with frogs. They took a test on the frog body systems that they were required to pass to participate in dissection.
In the final week, students walked through an online dissection, discussed safety procedures in the lab, and then spent two days completing dissections and a lab packet that guided them through the process.
“Overall, my students did really well,” Rice said of the year-end project. “They worked well together, they were careful during dissection, and they were interested in locating the internal anatomy of the frog.
“This was a great hands-on experience that let them see how structures and functions of organisms go hand in hand in biology.”