Froguts: Free Virtual Dissection for Remote Teaching
Times are uncertain; daily routines have been disrupted, and most schools have sent children to learn at home for the rest of the year. While our sacrifices to suppress COVID-19 are important, something needs to be done to assuage uncertainty for teachers and students alike who are unaccustomed to remote education.
Animalearn’s been working on a solution: finding as many free, online life science resources as possible, and bringing them to science educators.
As a humane science education program, Animalearn has been providing educators and students with free life science education resources for 30 years. We emphasize humane, environmentally-friendly, non-animal methods of teaching life sciences, and connect like-minded humane science educators to encourage resource-sharing. Luckily, that means many of our resources can be accessed online, from anywhere in the world!
One of our most popular and accessible virtual resources is Froguts.
Froguts was founded in 2001 and has been a widely-used and trusted virtual dissection software ever since. At one time, Froguts users had to pay a subscription to use this program, but recently the developers made the decision to move on from the company. They wanted their content to continue to be available, however, so they passed the Froguts software on to Animalearn to host for free. That means you can download Froguts as many times as you’d like at no cost. Teachers can even give their entire class access to this software for free!
Froguts will allow users to virtually dissect a bullfrog, a cow eye, a starfish, a fetal pig, and an owl pellet. This software also allows students to explore a Mendelian Pea experiment and observe fruit fly development and reproduction. Every dissection is detailed and offers quizzes after each section.
Students will use virtual dissection tools like scissors and scalpels to conduct their observations. Each system is completely discussed and the correct order of dissection is ensured. The subject to be dissected is viewed in 3D and students have the ability to manipulate the subject prior to dissection.
Animalearn hopes you find this resource useful. Download Froguts here!
Author: Bailee Henderson, Assistant Director—Animalearn
Bailee Henderson is the Assistant Director of Animalearn, a U.S. based nonprofit program focused on providing free, humane life science teaching tools for educators, parents, and students.
Featured Image: Screenshot from Animalearn Website – See here – Attribution CC-BY
Tags: Dissection, Froguts, Online free tool, teaching resources
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528836-200-animals-are-conscious-and-should-be-treated-as-such/?ignored=irrelevant