Education Commons^™

The Vertebrate Animal In High School Biology, Alan M. Beck

Education Collection

Live vertebrates afford opportunities to capture student interest and develop important educational experiences. Humane care and handling of the animals can be one of the most significant aspects of the lesson.

The study of classroom animals could include a wide range of observational and experimental protocols that do not compromise humane or conservational standards while providing background on the basics of science that encourage and prepare the student for continued education. Basic attention to detail and careful supervision will insure humane care of the animals and minimize the possibility of injury to students from bites and infection or discomfort from …

Reverence For Life: An Ethic For High School Biology Curricula, George K. Russell

Education Collection

Ethical and pedagogical arguments are presented against the use of animals by high school students in experiments causing pain/suffering/death of the animal. No justification is seen for such experimentation when perfectly valid alternatives, using noninvasive techniques, exist or could be developed. An important concern is the emotional and psychological growth of young people. An overall objective of high school biology curricula must be to assist students in making viable connections with living biological processes and the natural world.

Student (And Animal) Welfare, Leonard M. Krause

Education Collection

Adolescents exhibit affection for numerous vertebrates and appear to sympathize and to identify with traumas these animals experience. Therapeutic benefits students attach to nurturing and breeding certain vertebrates are evident; destruction of these same creatures produces clearly negative attitudes by students toward the science course and the instructor. "Case histories" documented while teaching high school students working with vertebrates are reviewed and are related to specific techniques (e.g., pithing) utilized by numerous instructors. Motivation, increased attention span, sustained interest, involvement with community issues and other desirable educational goals are demonstrated to be resultants of student involvement with living vertebrates studied …