Virtual dissection computer programs have emerged as a new teaching aid for science classes but ISU coordinators agree nothing can measure up to the old-fashioned practice of live dissections.

“Using a computer mouse to point and click is not a substitute for working on the real thing,” said Joanne Olson, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction. “Some things can certainly be learned via computer simulation, but having real experience is an important part of the learning process.”

Virtual dissection computer programs began to appear in 1995 and have been advancing ever since. Companies such as Scholastic, Neotek and Science Works produce these programs aspiring to replace live dissections in the classroom with simulation dissections. Such dissections would include frogs, cats, fetal pigs, earthworms, fish and rats.

Several organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, have supported the virtual dissection programs and campaigned to replace live dissections in schools with the computer programs.

While new advances in virtual dissection may be valuable as a teaching aid, Olson said the choice between using software and live dissection is based on the goals and objectives the teacher has for his or her students.

“If identification of organs and understanding their relative placements is the objective, a teacher may select software to accomplish this goal,” she said. “If, however, the teacher wants students to successfully perform surgery with minimal distress to the animal, the teacher would probably select specimens instead of a computer.”

Warren Dolphin, program coordinator for the biology department and university professor of zoology and genetics, said virtual dissections do not compare to live dissections. Virtual dissections provide a similar experience to what you can learn from looking at an atlas, he said.

“It’s really not dissection specifically,” Dolphin said. “In the case of dissection, you determine what real tissues look like, what they feel like, [and] what their composition is.”

The difference between the software and the live dissection is analogous to whether the student wants to learn first-hand or vicariously through another person’s experience, he said.

“Which would you prefer to have work on your car — somebody who spent 10 hours looking at a CD on how to repair a carburetor or somebody who has 10 hours of experience taking apart carburetors?” he said.