Finals week is never an easy time, especially in advanced classes, but this year, as a reward for finishing the course and the year, AP biology students earned the privilege to dissect frogs as their final assessment.
Angela Zier (staff) is a new teacher at Windsor. She just finished her first year at the school and decided to have her students dissect frogs during finals week. “We don’t study anatomy specifically, but in the context of a college level biology course, it’s important to cover all the key ideas… I would say that all the concepts we’ve been studying in class relate to dissection,” Zier said.
Despite not having weeks of formal preparation for this activity due to the shadow of the AP Biology exam the prior week, students were prepared for this activity based on past experiences and lessons dealing with minor aspects of anatomy. Although the AP exam is a major milestone for the class, not all students took the exam, giving those individuals the opportunity to conduct the dissection lab a week early, which in turn gave them the privilege of being team leads: “The week before, there will be some students who are either seniors … and students who won’t be taking the AP exam. We’re going to do a dissection together. Then they are going to be the team leads for their groups.”
Delaney Kintz (11) is one of the students who experienced the dissection lab and really enjoyed it: “I think it’s a good final because for most all of us we took the AP Bio exam, so there isn’t really a test we can take, but I think dissecting frogs is a fun way to end the year.”
Kintz decided to take AP Biology because of her interest in anatomy and surgery. Because of this interest, siKintz found the dissection lab to be a stimulating and educating way to complete the year, especially with her interest in the medical field.
Though this activity was meant to be more fun than other final activities or exams, it still required a concern for safety. “The frogs were preserved in a chemical preservative, so you want to limit your exposure to that, and if you get any of it on you they’ll need to wash their hands …. I will also show the students how to use the scalpel and the other tools they will need … we’ll go over our safety procedures as well,” Zier said.
Camden Timmons (11) is another student who was participated in the activity. With his group, Timmons had a lot of fun working on the frogs: “I was really looking forward to dissecting something because the last time we got to dissect something was seventh grade, so it will be a lot fun to do it again.”
Timmons shared Kintz’s beliefs on this being a good final to finish the year on. It allowed the students to take everything they’ve learned and apply it to a realistic scenario. “I think we’re supposed to learn how all the organs work together and see and visualize how everything comes together… so overall I think it’s a really cool final,” Timmons said.
