[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-595483-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":80,"doc-detail-595483-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":73,"head_meta":75,"extra_data":77,"updated_unix":79},105,"en","an-investigative-alternative-to-single-species-dissection-in-the-introductory-biology-laboratory","An Investigative Alternative to Single-Species Dissection in the Introductory Biology Laboratory","","Single-species dissections such as fetal pig are widely used in introductory biology labs, but they can limit students' opportunities for critical thinking, numeracy, and practicing the scientific method. A comparative anatomy laboratory was implemented over two years at a small rural liberal arts college. Students dissected five vertebrate species of their choice, analyzed digestive and cardiovascular structures, and generated quantitative data on intestinal length and heart mass. Instructors and students reported greater collaboration and reflective learning, with testable data at comparable cost.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/an-investigative-alternative-to-single-species-dissection-in-the-introductory-biology-laboratory/595483/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/an-investigative-alternative-to-single-species-dissection-in-the-introductory-biology-laboratory/595483.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Well Done","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"Why is single-species dissection limited in introductory biology labs?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"It often emphasizes identifying anatomical parts and terminology while offering less support for critical thinking, numeracy, and scientific-method practice.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"What does the comparative approach require students to do?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"Students choose which hypotheses to evaluate and which vertebrate species to dissect, while still learning the same required structures.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"How is the two-week lab structured?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"Week one groups work on shared species with instructor technical support, then week two reorganizes students into mixed vertebrate-class groups for presentations, evolutionary trend exploration, and hypothesis writing.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},595483,1792211304,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":101,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},5909892210082,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/56001069da27c9f41e8?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1789614185077863061","An Investigative Alternative to Single-Species Dissection in the Introductory  \nBiology Laboratory  \nJoel L. Carlin  \nDepartment of Biology, Gustavus Adolphus College, 800 West College Avenue, Saint Peter, MN 56082  \nEmail: [j](jcarlin@gustavus.edu)[carlin@gustavus.edu](jcarlin@gustavus.edu)  \nAbstract: Dissections of single species (e.g., fetal pig) are a common student learning activity in introductory biology courses. Such dissections demonstrate location of anatomical parts and provide dissection practice but provide less opportunity for student critical thinking, numeracy and demonstration of the scientific method. A comparative anatomy lab was implemented over two years at a small, rural, private, liberal arts college. Students dissected their choice of five vertebrate species, mastered the location, function and gross evolution of the digestive and cardiovascular systems, and analyzed intestinal length and heart mass among sets of species. Instructors and students reported significantly more collaboration and reflective learning than in other exercises. The comparative approach highlights several evolutionary trends and created testable data at an equivalent cost to previous fetal pig dissections.  \nKeywords: vertebrate evolution, comparative anatomy, quantitative data, hypothesis testing  \nINTRODUCTION  \nUndergraduate introductory laboratories often use dissection as an educational tool. Gross anatomical dissection is a useful skill for many biologists and reinforces the links between structure and function during the teaching of physiological and evolutionary concepts. Many published laboratory exercises regarding vertebrate dissection are simple explorations of terminology, fulfilling only the first cognitive domain of learning in Bloom‘s (1956) taxonomy. In addition, the model species of frog and fetal pig dissections are so common that students can claim college-level dissections are only review. Although dissections are new to some first year undergraduates, the value of repeating a single species dissection is lost to others. Some students surreptitiously avoid the dissection and instead memorize diagrams or photographs while others enjoy the dissection procedure but give little or no attention to mastering the biological concepts. Less common, but also disturbing, is when high-achieving students appear bored with re-memorizing from the same animal that they had seen previously. A need exists to improve students‘ dissection skills and mastery of anatomical terminology while engaging student creativity, hypothesis testing and critical thinking.  \nVertebrate dissection exercises usually are limited to a few commercially available species that together provide a spectrum for anatomical comparison. Meuler (2008) described a multiple species approach that she tested with 15 students. She reported increased engagement after students answered qualitative questions and wrote a research  \npaper based on two dissections per student pair over a four-week period. Our organismal biology course does not allow that much time for vertebrate anatomy or for the grading of that number of research papers. Instead we desired a more cost-effective alternative that stresses quantitative data analysis (a theme of the course) as well as evolutionary trends.  \nHere I introduce a comparative approach to dissection that requires critical thinking skills. Students choose which hypotheses to evaluate, and how best to combine and display their data. While students are required to learn all the same structures, they also choose which species to dissect. Some species (e.g., pigeon) have a highly specialized anatomy that might distract an introductory student from basic morphological trends. Some species are too small (anole), taken from overharvested populations (dogfish shark), or are too timeconsuming (bowfin, turtle) or expensive (cat, rabbit) for large undergraduate laboratories. Therefore I chose perch, mudpuppy, frog, pig and mink as study","cbCaiix4JrPt0g7y","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiix4JrPt0g7y","pdf",249999,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Rationale for improving dissection-based learning\n## Limits of single-species exercises and common model organisms\n# Course Design: Comparative Dissection Approach\n## Species selection and hypothesis-driven evaluation\n## Learning outcomes and instructional focus\n# Two-Week Laboratory Structure\n## Week one: individualized or paired dissection with shared species groups\n## Week two: mixed-species groups, presentations, and hypothesis writing","[{\"question\":\"Why is single-species dissection limited in introductory biology labs?\",\"answer\":\"It often emphasizes identifying anatomical parts and terminology while offering less support for critical thinking, numeracy, and scientific-method practice.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the comparative approach require students to do?\",\"answer\":\"Students choose which hypotheses to evaluate and which vertebrate species to dissect, while still learning the same required structures.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the two-week lab structured?\",\"answer\":\"Week one groups work on shared species with instructor technical support, then week two reorganizes students into mixed vertebrate-class groups for presentations, evolutionary trend exploration, and hypothesis writing.\"}]","An Investigative Alternative to Single-Species Dissection in the Introductory Biology Laboratory | PDF",1792081229,15]