Youth Forum: Students need hands-on learning of animal dissection

By Hailey Ross / For The Herald

If you heard about something that may help you become a veterinarian, animal scientist or biologist later in life and that opportunity was taken away, or those dreams were crushed because an activity in school was taken away or banned, how would you feel?

I am talking about animal dissection, which is commonly used in high school biology classrooms. But that experience is at threat of being banned. Dissection can help students decidewhat they want to or, not want to study. It helps students who are better hands-on learners, compared to listening to a teacher talking about it, and can not harm anybody, as the animals used have been cleaned.

Dissection helps students determine future jobs by inspiring or discouraging students from getting a job in the animal biology field. The students that would be discouraged by animal dissection would be unhappy in the animal biology field because they may find it disgusting. On the other hand, the students that would be inspired by the dissection would know that they do not dislike animal biology, meaning it could be a potential future possibility for them. Similarly, providing that hands-on experience would be a preview of what animal study would be like in college or even after if the students pursue a job in that field. Without animal dissection in high schools, young adults have no way of knowing if they want to pursue a job in that field because they would have no experience with it.

Another thing animal dissection helps is with hands-on learning. Teachers report that students gain valuable hands-on experience form dissection, including putting on lab coats and gloves, handling scalpels, and looking at samples under a microscope. The entire experience can spark creativity. Commonly, students get better inspired through hands-on activities. This is because they experience them since they are actively doing it.

When actively doing something in school students are more likely to gain experience and more likely to remember and enjoy that activity, considering they work on paper or on computers in most classes, so change would be more memorable. Research has shown that most humans remember things that they can touch and interact with. And it happens that animal dissection is a fitting example of that and gives a better learning experience that could help students in future classes.

Finally, animal dissection would not harm anybody. Before animals that are dissected go to classrooms, the U.S. Department of Agriculture must inspect all biological supplies. Sanitation issues, cage construction, and other care issues are addressed by these inspections. As a result, that means that the animals are safe to touch and will not cause any illnesses or diseases. The only threatening factor of animal dissection is eliminated.

When the USDA inspects and cleans these animals, they follow a specific process. This process is they first clean the animals thoroughly to remove any debris, dirt or foreign matter. Then they preserve them to keep the animal from decaying so they can be dissected. Lastly, they store them, typically in jars or containers then they sit in those containers until dissected. This shows that the process for cleaning the animals is ensured to be safe and done properly, because there is a company that specifically cleans the animals, ensuring that it is done right. As a result, animals used for dissection are ensured to be professionally cleaned so that dissection can be performed safely.

Although a better alternative may be invented in the future, animal dissection is currently best way to gain experience dissecting things as a student. Until then dissection will continue to help students decide what they want for future jobs, help hands-on learners, and give people jobs to clean the animal carcasses. Therefore, it should be clear that animal dissection should not be banned in high school classrooms.

Hailey Ross is an eighth-grader at Lakewood Middle School. She wrote this as a class assignment, joining other students whose work was published recently in The Herald.