http://seawitchery.tumblr.com/post/4070384205/i-started-out-clicking-strategically-and-by-the
WARNING: Extremely fun. You may become addicted.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Musical Squares
There's this awesome blog my friend showed to me where they have this musical squares. I'd highly recommend giving it a shot.
http://seawitchery.tumblr.com/post/4070384205/i-started-out-clicking-strategically-and-by-the
WARNING: Extremely fun. You may become addicted.
http://seawitchery.tumblr.com/post/4070384205/i-started-out-clicking-strategically-and-by-the
WARNING: Extremely fun. You may become addicted.
Monday, April 4, 2011
And this little piggy went wee, wee, wee... to my biology class.
(N.B. This is writer's blog #5)
It was that warm April day where fate decided to get a good laugh at my expense. I was placed into a group with a science-geek, a cheerleader, a vegan, and a mexican boy who didn't speak much english. Together, we were the team destined to conquer one of the most common trials found in highschool biology-- animal dissection.
What started with an uneasy sense of optimism amongst our group quickly spiraled down into chaos. We were given a fetal pig to dissect and it didn't take long for our team mates to get eliminated one by one. The cheerleader didn't want to get her nails dirty (cliche, I know, but I say this in all seriousness) and ran off to go talk to her friend about the latest gossip. The science-geek (who previously had been psyched about the prospects of the gore behind chopping up the fetal pig) quickly retired to the bathroom sink where he could be found throwing up the latest lunchroom edibles. And between the vegan, the mexican, and myself-- your average, quiet, tiny ninth grade girl-- there was an ongoing conflict where the mexican boy thought it'd be funny to throw dead pig parts at the vegan boy which quickly eliminately the two as compatible partners, leaving me to finish the dissection alone.
Honestly, there's very little I remember from the actual dissection besides the smell, the moment of piercing into the pig's flesh, and the fact that the lining inside of the pig looked like a dark rainbow metallic color. It did bring however, bring a whole new sense realism to how the inside of life systems work, similar to how Susan Offner writers that after her first dissection it showed her "that the world was a rational place, and that knowledge and understanding can come from serious study of real specimens and real data" (American Biology Teacher). When doing something hands on, it makes it more real to you. Offner states this with her main claim that "you can have a student regurgitate on a paper-andpencil test that a mamal's lungs are spongy, but there is no way that the student will understand what spongy means unless they see a real lung" (American Biology Teacher). I know that in my college level chemistry classes, I always prefer in-lab experiments over the virtual ones because I feel I get alot more out of the learning experience. However, my appreciation for real experiences came with age and maturity, something I don't think ninth graders carry as much of. Which is where I find the flaw in current day biology dissections.
Biology is typically taught as a ninth or tenth grade classroom course where all students are required to participate. In my classroom, there was no alternative to the activity besides skipping the class, which should never have to be the only alternative. I think that it would have been wiser to make this experience something gained from higher level biology courses rather than a univerally required activity during ninth grade classrooms. I feel that students who are taking biology by choice an additional year (as I did during my senior year of highschool) would be better suited for the activity. If a student isn't planning to have a career in a science-oriented field, or isn't taking the biology class by choice, then it seems less appropriate for them to be forced into the activity. Also, even if it continues to be found in common classrooms at a ninth grade level, there should be the option to choose either a virtual dissection or an in-lab experience. Not only will this cater to the small percentage of students who's personal beliefs might prevent them from performing dissections, it also caters to the students who doing feel uncomfortable with the dissection. For the science-geek in my group that ended up throwing up or the vegan boy, they probably would have learned more by being forced to use a virtual lab than forced to suffer through an actual one.
I sympathize with the PETA's articles "Dissection: Lessons in Cruelty" when they talk about how millions of animals are killed for this practice. It would seem like a waste of an animal when students goof off and play around by throwing dead animal parts at each other. However, I don't believe it should be eliminated entirely. There should simply be an appropriate adjustment to the student crowd that performs the dissection so that it is targeted towards a more mature group who can appreciate the knowledge they get through the experience. For ninth grade classrooms now, they could try testing out more of the virtual dissection programs that PETA mentions in their article such as DissectionWorks or The Digital Frog.
This topic tends to have a wide range of opinions, and personally, I'd look for some compromise between the positions. Going back, if I had a choice between the virtual and actual dissection, I probably would have still selected the actual dissection. However, with the virtual option it would have removed some of the partners I had from the group which could have been filled with more appreciative mature students.
(for anyone maybe having to do research on this topic, below are two useful articles I read over for my class)
Works Cited:
Offner, Susan. "The Case for Dissection." Opposing Viewpoints: Animal Rights. Ed. Andrew Harnack. San
Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. <http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010111219&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=viva2_nvcc&version=1.0>.
(PETA), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Dissection Teaches Students Lessons in Cruelty." At Issue: Animal Experimentation. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. <http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010002235&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=viva2_nvcc&version=1.0>.
It was that warm April day where fate decided to get a good laugh at my expense. I was placed into a group with a science-geek, a cheerleader, a vegan, and a mexican boy who didn't speak much english. Together, we were the team destined to conquer one of the most common trials found in highschool biology-- animal dissection.
What started with an uneasy sense of optimism amongst our group quickly spiraled down into chaos. We were given a fetal pig to dissect and it didn't take long for our team mates to get eliminated one by one. The cheerleader didn't want to get her nails dirty (cliche, I know, but I say this in all seriousness) and ran off to go talk to her friend about the latest gossip. The science-geek (who previously had been psyched about the prospects of the gore behind chopping up the fetal pig) quickly retired to the bathroom sink where he could be found throwing up the latest lunchroom edibles. And between the vegan, the mexican, and myself-- your average, quiet, tiny ninth grade girl-- there was an ongoing conflict where the mexican boy thought it'd be funny to throw dead pig parts at the vegan boy which quickly eliminately the two as compatible partners, leaving me to finish the dissection alone.
Honestly, there's very little I remember from the actual dissection besides the smell, the moment of piercing into the pig's flesh, and the fact that the lining inside of the pig looked like a dark rainbow metallic color. It did bring however, bring a whole new sense realism to how the inside of life systems work, similar to how Susan Offner writers that after her first dissection it showed her "that the world was a rational place, and that knowledge and understanding can come from serious study of real specimens and real data" (American Biology Teacher). When doing something hands on, it makes it more real to you. Offner states this with her main claim that "you can have a student regurgitate on a paper-andpencil test that a mamal's lungs are spongy, but there is no way that the student will understand what spongy means unless they see a real lung" (American Biology Teacher). I know that in my college level chemistry classes, I always prefer in-lab experiments over the virtual ones because I feel I get alot more out of the learning experience. However, my appreciation for real experiences came with age and maturity, something I don't think ninth graders carry as much of. Which is where I find the flaw in current day biology dissections.
Biology is typically taught as a ninth or tenth grade classroom course where all students are required to participate. In my classroom, there was no alternative to the activity besides skipping the class, which should never have to be the only alternative. I think that it would have been wiser to make this experience something gained from higher level biology courses rather than a univerally required activity during ninth grade classrooms. I feel that students who are taking biology by choice an additional year (as I did during my senior year of highschool) would be better suited for the activity. If a student isn't planning to have a career in a science-oriented field, or isn't taking the biology class by choice, then it seems less appropriate for them to be forced into the activity. Also, even if it continues to be found in common classrooms at a ninth grade level, there should be the option to choose either a virtual dissection or an in-lab experience. Not only will this cater to the small percentage of students who's personal beliefs might prevent them from performing dissections, it also caters to the students who doing feel uncomfortable with the dissection. For the science-geek in my group that ended up throwing up or the vegan boy, they probably would have learned more by being forced to use a virtual lab than forced to suffer through an actual one.
I sympathize with the PETA's articles "Dissection: Lessons in Cruelty" when they talk about how millions of animals are killed for this practice. It would seem like a waste of an animal when students goof off and play around by throwing dead animal parts at each other. However, I don't believe it should be eliminated entirely. There should simply be an appropriate adjustment to the student crowd that performs the dissection so that it is targeted towards a more mature group who can appreciate the knowledge they get through the experience. For ninth grade classrooms now, they could try testing out more of the virtual dissection programs that PETA mentions in their article such as DissectionWorks or The Digital Frog.
This topic tends to have a wide range of opinions, and personally, I'd look for some compromise between the positions. Going back, if I had a choice between the virtual and actual dissection, I probably would have still selected the actual dissection. However, with the virtual option it would have removed some of the partners I had from the group which could have been filled with more appreciative mature students.
(for anyone maybe having to do research on this topic, below are two useful articles I read over for my class)
Works Cited:
Offner, Susan. "The Case for Dissection." Opposing Viewpoints: Animal Rights. Ed. Andrew Harnack. San
Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. <http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010111219&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=viva2_nvcc&version=1.0>.
(PETA), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Dissection Teaches Students Lessons in Cruelty." At Issue: Animal Experimentation. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. <http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010002235&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=viva2_nvcc&version=1.0>.
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