Tools for TeachersESEC Promotes a Cruelty-Free Classroom: Stoughton High School Samples 'Cutting Edge' Alternatives to Classroom Dissection (Spring
2000) — It's an educational truism that "Teachers teach
the way they were taught." Fortunately for Stoughton High School
students - as well as many frogs and cats - Stoughton science
teachers and administrators are trying out some highly innovative
computer technology aimed at cutting out cutting up animals,
all courtesy of the Ethical Science and Education Coalition
(ESEC), NEAVS' affiliate. ESEC supplies dissection alternatives
to classrooms on a loan basis and is available to help teachers
learn the new software.
"We are always looking for new technology aids," said Michael Nassise, Director of Natural and Applied Sciences at the high school. He is adding the alternative programs, Cat Lab and Digital Frog2, to Stoughton's traditional dissection curriculum. The CD-ROM programs, which can be run on individual computers or linked through one computer server, show step-by-step dissections, performed in painstaking detail by highly skilled microsurgeons. Students are able to "repeat" the dissection any number of times, obtain help with vocabulary and technical terms, and conduct self-quizzes. This user-friendly repetition makes the CD-ROM programs a powerful teaching and learning tool. "The computer programs eliminate the need to kill additional animals for use in dissection," said Theodora Capaldo, EdD, ESEC President. "Compassion no longer means that one has to sacrifice learning." Some estimates place the number of frogs harvested from the wild and used for dissection at six million or more - in the U. S. alone. "Frogs are a keystone species - an important part of the food chain and of life on earth." Rosen said. "Their numbers are decreasing at an alarming rate."
Goodale noted that in some school systems she has served in, students have chosen not to dissect. "These computer programs are of superior quality and extremely affordable. They will be very beneficial in helping students prepare for tests. They are also ethically and scientifically sound alternatives for students who do not wish to cut up animals of any species." Massachusetts State Representative Louis Kafka (D - Stoughton) is the lead sponsor of House Bill 1252, which would ensure that students not be penalized for choosing not to dissect in their science classes. "As a parent and someone concerned about education, I had wrestled with the question of classroom dissection for many years," Kafka noted. "I'm now fully convinced that there are reasonable alternatives to offer students, and am pleased that one of the towns in my district is looking at these programs which are clearly state-of-the-art." In fact, it was Rep. Kafka's championship of dissection choice legislation that spurred the connection of the Stoughton Public Schools with ESEC - a partnership which will now ensure all Stoughton students access to the new state-of-the-art, cruelty-free CD-ROM programs. ESEC representatives have also presented the computer programs at the State House to an enthusiastic group of Education Committee members. ESEC received a very favorable response from many educators, parents, veterinarians, doctors and students. For information on obtaining dissection alternative computer programs on loan from the Ethical Science and Education Coalition, contact the ESEC office at 617-367-9143, or email ESEC at esec@ma.neavs.com.
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Prudence Goodale, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum,
echoes Nassise's remarks. "I am very impressed with how realistic
these new CD-ROM programs are. They are incredibly accurate
and authentic," she said.
