Real Frogs?!

Since the beginning of the year I have been asking my students occasionally if there are any activities they would really like to do or things they would really like to learn about. A recurring suggestion in my biology classes was to dissect frogs. I would always reply "Hmm that would be really cool, but I don't know if we'll be able to do it." When it was difficult for teachers to get basic things like chalk, poster board, and printing paper, I doubted I would be able to get all the materials for a dissection. Even if I could find somewhere to get them, the main object would be money. The teachers at Leone pay for most of their classroom materials themselves. At the beginning of the year I got 3 pieces of chalk and a few pieces of poster board. That lasted me about 3 days. As a volunteer teacher I wasn't going to be able to put out the cash for 50 students to dissect frogs.

Then I got an email. WorldTeach was offering grant money to World Teachers in American Samoa who submitted proposals to enhance our ability to support our school and/or our community. It was called a "Community Service Grant" so I wasn't sure frog dissections really fit the description, but with nothing else to do on a Sunday and nothing to lose, I submitted a proposal. A few days later I found out that I had been awarded a grant to pay for frogs and dissection kits for my biology students! Just in case something happened, I didn't tell my students right away, but we started a new unit on amphibians and frogs. I assumed it would take a while for the frogs and kits to come in the mail from the US since everything takes forever here, but it didn't take a long at all. Soon after, I got a text from Drew, our field director, saying my frogs were here.

I opened up the box at our house and right on top was a giant plastic bagged filled with dead, preserved frogs. It grossed out the roommates a little bit. There was also 30 sets of tools and magnifying glasses, and 30 dissection guides, which were written at a level way too advanced for my students. We still had a little bit more work to do to prepare them for the dissection, but I could finally tell them for certain that we were definitely dissecting frogs. "I have 30 dead frogs in a bag in my bedroom!" I told them. To which they responded, "EWWWWW!" "REAL FROGS?!" "Are they dead? Did you kill them?" "Where did they come from??" I had already explained to them that they large toads that are always seen smashed on the road are not actually frogs but toads. I knew a lot of them were excited to do the dissection, but I was pretty sure they didn't really realize exactly what they were getting themselves into, having never dissected anything before.

I prepared them the best that I could beforehand by doing worksheets, drawing pictures, learning the dissection tools and how to use them, and watching a youtube video of a frog dissection (they thought I had filmed myself since the video only showed the hands of the person doing the dissection).You can only get so much out of worksheets and videos. At some point you really just have to dive in and do the dissection. I scheduled it for the Thursday the week before Thanksgiving break (I needed to get this bag of dead frogs out of my room before I left for Thanksgiving) and told them to bring gloves if they wanted them and styrofoam plates to do the dissections on because I couldn't find any dissection trays.



This is me demonstrating incorrect cutting technique.



I was nervous about a few things. First, about my actual dissecting knowledge. I've dissected a lot of things so I wasn't nervous about getting grossed out, but I've only ever dissected one frog and that was about 10 years ago. I was also nervous about being the only teacher in the room while 25 kids who have never dissected anything are cutting open frogs. Amber came to help control the situation for the first period which was helpful. The other teachers were busy teaching and I didn't have confidence in their dissection abilities anyway. I was also worried that they would forget to bring glove or plates (most forgot gloves). I was also concerned about safety since we were using some sharp tools, and I want to make sure that nothing left the classroom. I didn't want kids making shanks out of the scalpels or taking the dead frogs to throw on other kids. I made them all write and sign a contract the day before the dissection which included things like "I will not use the scalpel on my partner, etc." I was expecting some of the kids to feel grossed out, but it didn't even cross my mind that some of them would get physically ill. I guess I've dissected so many things that I'm not bothered by this anymore, but there were a few kids who had to leave and throw up.

When I pulled out the bag of frogs at the beginning of the period, the class erupted with cries of disgust and again I heard, "Miss, are those REAL frogs?!" Kids recoiled when moved the bag anywhere near them. They were even further appalled when I reached my UNGLOVED hand into the bag and pulled out a frog for each pair of students. “Miss! You can touch them with your hands??” Most of them were able to get over it after 5 or 10 minutes. Videos and worksheets can only take them so far in their preparation. A lot of them really got into it and seemed like they started to enjoy it. Some of the highlights were cutting open the stomach to see if there were any distinguishable insects left inside like cockroaches, flies, and grasshoppers, and finding and cutting out the heart. Since there was only one of me and 25 of them, I spent both dissection periods running around the room trying to help every group. I ended the day covered in sweat and frog slime.

The week after, I asked all the students to write a reflection/critique about the dissection. I gave them questions to answer such as what they liked and didn’t like, what they learned, what they would have done differently, how they felt during the dissection, if they would want to do another dissection, etc. I got a lot of interesting essays. Here’s an excerpt:

Well, the frog dissection activity was both disgusting and interesting. At first I was excited and confident, but when Ms. Abby brought out the frog, I was terrified. I was on the verge of throwing up outside the classroom. It took about five minutes for me to calm down…

 But then he goes on and the tone of the essay changes in almost the same way that I observed changes in the students’ behavior and attitudes on the day of the dissection.

I would love to do this activity again someday. Activities like this make me excited to come to school every day. I would love to dissect a real life human body if it is legal. Thank you so much Ms. Abby for such a great experience!!! :)

Overall most kids said it was an exciting and interesting activity that they enjoyed and from which they learned a lot. I was surprised by the number of students who expressed concern that the frog was not really dead and would suddenly jump on them in the middle of the dissection. There were a few who told me that one dissection was enough for them, but most want to move on to bigger and better things! Everything considered I think it was a success from my point of view, as well as that of the students. I’m glad I was able to give them this opportunity!