Tardis Girl Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 Has anyone had good (or bad) experiences with virtual dissections for the lab component of high school biology? My kids are finished with biology, but due to certain issues were unable to complete the lab component. Now we need to take care of the lab part this summer -- really by mid-July. I'm still considering doing standard "hands-on" dissections, but would also like to consider doing virtual dissections instead. If you can recommend any particular software (or if you were unhappy with it), I'd love to hear about it. Thank you! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 Digital Frog. a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAR120C Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 I think I've seen them all now (ugh!) and Froguts was by far my favorite. It has the frog, but also starfish, squid, cow eye, and fetal pig. It was really the fetal pig I was looking for, for the mammal organ systems. (And while I don't have a particular ethical objection to dissection in general, and we've done other dissections... the fetal pig was a little much even for me.) Compared to the free online stuff, the pictures and animations were much clearer in Froguts -- a lot of the free stuff manages to be disgusting without actually showing anything useful. I wasn't much impressed with the Carolina Biological offering (Carolina BioLab) either, that way. Also BioLab was about $90 per species. Froguts is $35 or so for the whole thing, for a year's license. The other think I really liked about Froguts (which is true of Digital Frog too), is that when you dissect a part, it walks you through each cut. Carolina BioLab just "pops" open to the part you're looking at. It's a minor thing, but I'm hesitant about claims that virtual labs are sufficiently similar to real labs... and so the more tedious details they include the better, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanier.1765 Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 I was just checking out Froguts last night. It's pretty incredible. They have a free demo of a bullfrog that helps give you an idea of how it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 :lurk5: Has anyone seen the DIVE dissections? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolally Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 Thanks so much for posting the info about froguts. I have a otherwise very enthusiasic biology student--but he is very squeamish (to the point of vomiting) about any kind of guts. I keep thinking he will grow out of it--but it seems to be getting worse! We got a frog kit from Discovery, but I just don't feel it qualifies for a HS lab. This looks like a perfect fit.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tardis Girl Posted June 28, 2010 Author Share Posted June 28, 2010 Thanks so much for the replies! I'm particularly interested in pursuing the Froguts, I think. http://dissect.froguts.com/welcome.html I really liked what the demo covered (although I wish they would've included the quiz for that section so I could see what it's like). And the variety of specimens available looks quite promising! $30 for one year of use at home, installed on up to 3 computers. Considering what it would cost for dissection supplies and specimens, I think this is very reasonable! I've looked at some other virtual dissections and they were way too basic. I still see the value in hands-on dissection, but I think this will make virtual dissection a more viable alternative. Thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatinTea Posted June 28, 2010 Share Posted June 28, 2010 Thanks for asking about this! I just viewed the demo and it was very cool. $30 is very reasonable to avoid the stink and mess. I do believe my dd will much prefer this to the real thing. Biology here we come! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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