To Dissect
or not to dissect?
Shannon Shackles
Data retrieved from Oakley 2011
In Oakley's (2011) survey, Ontario science teachers were asked to identify what they believed to be the benefits of conducting virtual dissections in their classrooms. Many of the teachers believe that virtual dissections are excellent supplemental aids to dissections. Almost as many teachers also agreed that virtual dissections are great as an alternative option for students who do not want to complete a live dissection (Oakley, 2011).
Many teachers identified virtual dissections are advantageous because they are reusable. Animals in live dissections are not sustainable because they are not reusable where as a virtual software can be used an endless amount of times (Oakley, 2011).
With that being said, teachers also identified that virtual dissections are cost-effective since they can be reused. Although the software can be expensive to purchase initially, it is more cost-effective in the long-term since it can be used over and over again and new animals aren't required to be purchased every time.
Following these factors, teachers said virtual dissections are beneficial because it decreases their environment footprint and because of ethics. By using virtual dissections rather than live dissections it decreases the classes environmental footprint. Additionally, live dissections take an animals life where as virtual dissections do not.
Finally, another two benefits virtual dissections have is that it is time-efficient and it alleviates teacher discomfort with dissections. Virtual dissections are more time-efficient that conducting live dissections since teachers do not have to worry about set-up and clean-up times.
Research Supporting Virtual Dissections
There has been a lot of research conducted on students learning while doing both live dissections and virutal dissections. There have been research findings that have identified a difference in learning between using the two methods, some in favour of live dissections and some in favour of virtual dissections. Below is a summary table retrieved from Montgomery identifying some of the research that concluded that live dissections proved to have a positive influence on learning in comparison to virtual alternatives.
A study conducted by Akpan & Andre in 2009 had three experimental groups: some students completed a virtual dissection prior to a traditional dissection, some students completed a traditional dissection before a virtual dissection, and the final group only completed a live dissection. The students who did a virtual dissection prior to a live dissection performed significantly better on tests than both other groups.
Retrieved from Akpan & Andre, 1999
Data retrieved from Maloney, 2005.
A study conducted by Maloney in 2005 found that middle school students performed significantly better on both a practical test and an objective test. On the practical test, students grades were two grade levels higher after completing a virtual dissection rather than a live dissection. The differences in grades on the objective test were significant, but both acheived the same grade level.