Frog Dissection

Ah, yes.  That wonderful day in middle school science that everyone remembers.  A right of passage, almost.

The frog dissection.

The last unit in our syllabus was supposed to go over some parts of physiology.  I ran out of time (though some of the points I was able to cover in other units), so I tried to make up for it by explaining what they were looking at during the dissection.  Lame?  Maybe.

I was late to class today.  We had a meeting with the principal that went over time into the next period.  After it ended I had to race to get the trays for the frog dissection, then race to my classroom.  I found the security guard letting them in.  "Oh, please, no.  I have frogs in my classroom and I don't want students in there unaccompanied."  I don't know why you would let students into a classroom without the teacher in there anyway, but I'm glad I got there right as they were entering.  Can you imagine the disaster???

Hypothetical Situation
Student 1:  look!  A bag full of frogs!
Student 2:  Cool!  Let's poke it!
Student 1: Okay!
 . . . poking ensues until the bag is in shambles, liquid spilled on the floor, and frogs are being thrown across the room  . . . 

Yeah. . . I don't want that to happen!!

The students came in and sat down.  I gave a very quick and stern introduction.  There is no horseplay when we have the frog on our tables.  There is no walking around.  There is no waving of the tools.  There is no playing with your frog.  This is your last warning and if I see any of these behaviors you will be sent immediately to the office to spend the remainder of the period.

The kids were pretty good with understanding that they had to be on their best behavior today.  They figured out that I wasn't mad, but good behavior was important today.

It was fun.   Lots of exclamations throughout the period.  I put the lab instructions on the projector for them all to see and we went through the instructions together.  That made it easier for us all to be on the same page rather than having them follow the instructions at their own pace.

Everyone was on good behavior and the dissection went smoothly.

I had two class periods in a row that did this dissection.  By the end of the second the smell was getting to me!!  I had both classroom doors open with the air vents on their highest setting, just to try and get the air circulated well enough.  However, it wasn't until the end when we had cleaned everything up and clorox wiped the tables down that it started to smell better.

Yay for adventures and clean classrooms.