If have dissected a worm, frog, etc - quick question please

[HSMWB]

How long did it take for the dissection?  Were you doing it with just your kids, or in a group, and how old were they?  I am trying to figure out how long to plan.  If you have done more then one animal - did they take about the same amount of time each?  We are planning on doing a worm, crayfish, grasshopper, starfish, clam, perch, and frog.

[Kerileanne99]

Oh! You must have a kid like mine...I asked what she wanted in her Easter basket and she said " creatures to dissect!"

 

Maybe not in the Easter Basket, but we are doing another frog tomorrow!

 

As far as how long it takes: well, that depends on a lot of things. How much have you prepped beforehand? Have the kids studied anything about them or is this just a first foray? If so, an they don't have much technique or know what they are looking for it will take minutes:)

If they have a guide for each and you want to try to locate specific organs or parts of each specimen it could take at least an hour or so min per.

I usually go through a little mini anatomy lesson (and there are some amazing virtual dissection apps and websites to learn from!) but my dd is still very young...typical dissection takes about 30-45 minutes, although sometimes we come back to it.

 

ETA: is sounds as though you have a set from Home Science Tools, and no, the simpler creatures will not take nearly as much time as say, the frog...but unless you are just doing a quick fun comparison, is there a reason why you are doing them all at once that way?

[Farrar]

I've done it different ways - me doing most of the dissecting with their help and vice versa. It has taken radically different amounts of time for different things. Some of our best things have been not prepared specimens though. We did a whole chicken from the grocery and it was great for bones and muscles.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Worms are easy- just one incision, pin, and examine.  I would say "one class period"- so about an hour, especially if you have the child do a sketch. 

 

Perch and frog will take longer, with the frog being the longest.  If you really go through it, it can take several class periods or several days. 

 

I'd say all the others would be somewhere in between, more time with more complexity. 

 

I would not try to do them all at once, because you'd be tired out by the time you got to the most complex animals, and you might rush through.  Not to mention being ready to get away from the smell! 

[maize]

We did a set with those animals when my oldest was about 6 :) we did them all at once, I really just let the kids find whatever they thought was interesting. We identified things like the heart. Took maybe an hour for all of them. I would expect older kids to go more in depth, but I mostly just wanted to do some dissections while my kids were young enough to think it was cool not gross and get them used to the idea. Biology has always been one of my favorite subjects.

[maize]

We did ours outside, that way the smell was not so overwhelming.

[Mom22ns]

Worm is short and easy 30-60 min depending on interest level of the kid/kids.

 

Frogs are much more complex. You can still do a quick slash and major organ search if you are doing it with a young child, but a junior high or high school aged child should spend at least 2 hours on a frog. There is a lot there that is large enough to see and follow, the digestive system starting with that tongue that attaches at the front, the circulatory system including some major blood vessels, the respiratory system, the nervous system including the brain and some major nerves, they can look at the muscles on the legs and see how they pull and how the leg is flexed and straightened by the opposing muscles... you get the idea. There is a lot. If they are very interested and want to explore, they may want 3-4 hours. If they hate the idea of dissections and just want to get through it, an hour or two will cover it :).

[HSMWB]

Thanks so much for the replies!

 

We are not doing them all at once on the same day, but spreading them out, one a day for a few weeks, and it sounds like what I was expecting time wise.

[FloridaLisa]

I haven't done a grasshopper, starfish or clam, but the worm and crayfish should take no more than an hour each, the perch an hour and the frog took us 2 hours.  We used instructions in Apologia biology and had a guest physician help us with the frog dissection.

 

Lisa