If, like me, you're a veteran of the US educational system, you've probably had the "educational" experience of dissecting a frog (for those of you that haven't, that's where you take a perfectly good frog, kill it, and cut it open to see what's inside). Well, today, I'd like to suggest an alteritive way for students to learn about frog innards (assuming you need to know about frog innards), the glass frog.
[Image]
Glass frogs have little to no pigmentation in their skin, meaning you can frequently see the internal organs on a perfectly healthy frog. They're fairly small species of frogs, (the largest only grow to about three inches (7.5 cm)). Most species to have green pigment in most of their skin, leaving only the underbelly transparent.
[Image]
Glass frogs are native to South and Central America, and are mostly arboreal. Several species lay their eggs out of water, on leaves hanging above a lake or stream. When it's time to hatch, the tadpoles just fall in. [Image]Now just think, wouldn't this be a better replacement for dissection? No need to hurt the frog, just let it hop around. Let's you see the frog and see it in action. Let's see if we can get schools to keep tanks of these instead.
Pictures courtesy of Time, http://news.xinhuanet.com, and wikipedia