The Physiology and Ethics Behind Dissection in Science
My students need 30 fetal pigs in order to perceive the internal organs of a mammal. Characteristics within the fetal pig will be connected to human physiology.
$920 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
Do you recall dissecting organisms in your science classes? How was that learning experience? Were you fascinated or disgusted? I am eager to guide my students through a biology experience that has been lost in public education; studying the physiology and ethics behind using specimens in science.
My students are energetic, proactive learners, that mostly come from a low socioeconomic upbringing.
The school community is rich in culture and is attempting to provide the best education for the students in this rural community despite the limitations on spending. Unfortunately, budgeting in California has placed a heavy burden throughout each department within our school, and this greatly impacts the ability to perform labs, let alone print worksheets, for our biology course. Consequently, this hinders a student's access to dynamic modes for learning.
My students have articulated that they benefit most from inquiry-based learning, but lack of funding has reduced the amount of inquiry-based lessons that can take place in the classroom. In fact, at the end of the last term I asked the students within the class to provide feedback on changes they would like to see in curriculum in order to improve learning, and the two leading requests were (1)labs and (2)to dissect an organism.
My Project
Budget cuts have impacted all classrooms dramatically, and unfortunately, students are impacted the greatest. My hopes would be to receive a donation to purchase laboratory specimens, so my students can have an authentic, academic learning experience on the physiology of mammals and the ethics behind using specimens in science.
Physiology concepts can be rather intuitive for students to describe, but students rarely get the opportunity to observe the intricacy of a mammal's physiology. Therefore, I would like to use a fetal pig specimen to show students how intricate physiological systems are. Fetal pigs act as good specimens, because their physiological systems and processes are similar to humans. I am requesting 30 fetal pigs so that students can work in groups of 5 to perform the dissection; anymore students in a group would reduce the effectiveness of the learning experience. The remains of the pigs post dissection will be preserved and used to educate future students.
Presently, most science labs are reserved for private or higher education, but I would like to make such a reserved experience available to some of the most disadvantaged students in this community.
With your donation, students this year and in subsequent years will be able to actualize concepts in physiology using the fetal pig, and relate that experience to human physiology. Also, this experience would be used to educate students about the ethics behind using animals for scientific research.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Kriscunas and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
