Massachusetts and Illinois are considering similar legislation. PETA estimates that almost 6 million frogs a year are bred and killed for dissection. Many science courses use dissection to give students a better understanding of frog anatomy and a specific look at internal organs and muscles. Enter, Net-Frog Mable Kinzie, an associate professor of instructional technology at the University of Virginia, developed an interactive frog dissection six years ago, first on videodisc and then online. Along the way, the computer mouse takes the place of the pins, scalpel, and forceps a student would ordinarily use in the laboratory.
Online videos cover the different stages of the dissection.
Net-Frog lets them know if they have chosen the right locations on the screen. Kinzie also studied how well students learn using virtual dissection versus the real thing. When students were tested on their knowledge of frog anatomy and dissection, we found that the ones using the interactive materials did every bit as well as students who actually dissected. They actually did a little better. Explore the virtual dissection exercise in Net-Frog .