JusDelenH Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 My child is ethically opposed to dissection. She feels that animals are friends and supports cruelty free killings for food only or if it places a human life in imminent danger. She hates zoos and circuses because animals should roam free in their natural habitats. She even changed her career goals once she found out they were done in vet school. So you can probably guess how dissection talks for the coming year go. I've looked into paper dissection but I find them lacking and too much work on my behalf. I do not want to force her to go against her personal beliefs but Dissections are a have to in my book. What are my other options? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Well, I think there are some virtual dissection labs online, where it's all done on the computer on a "virtual frog" and whatnot. Try googling for that. Now I'll share my 2 cents, unasked for... I have a degree in physics, concentration in biophysics. I have no ethical opposition to dissection, hunting, fishing, eating meat... I've dissected a worm, a fish, a crawfish, a frog or two, a fetal pig, and a cat. All of those I did in high school. I cannot for the life of me think of how that was helpful in any way to me as a person, as a scientist.... nothing. It was just weeks of stinky dissections to see that those anatomical drawings in textbooks were, big surprise, accurate- though less squishy. I would not insist on dissections. I CAN see how they'd be useful to a vet or a doctor... better to poke around in a dead body first. But for a high school student? Nope. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 There are companies out there that lend alternatives. We once were able to borrow one of them as a homeschooler. That particular organization no longer seems to be in business, but there are several out there (google dissection alternatives). We only had to pay for the shipping and insurance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 There are virtual dissections that are pretty good. I'm a physician so have done lots of dissections. I teach Anatomy at out co-op and we do three dissections in the class. I also have a son who I am sure will be ethically opposed to them and I'm fine with that. If I had a student who was opposed to the dissections in our class, I would allow them to sit out. I don't make it part of the grade anyway. I think there is a purpose to them and I have felt like the ones I've done were valuable to my studies. But I don't think they are essential to understanding biology for someone who isn't going to go on to be a vet or physician or some other career where it's more directly related. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mryann Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 My sister is an online professor and uses PhysioEx for virtual dissections. This is a Pearson product that costs $30. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 I would do virtual dissections or skip them. I have one who is not going on in a STEM field, and I allowed him to skip dissections. FWIW, a friend of mine asked Jay Wile in person about dissections for Apologia (because her daughter didn't want to do them) and he said that as long as she did all the other labs in the book, to not worry about the dissections. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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