Movement to curtail animal dissections in zoology curriculum: review of the Indian experience

Akbarsha, Mohammad Abdulkader

doi:10.14573/altex.2007.3.163

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…This also eventually contributes to the credibility of the discipline and the perception of its independence from lobbying groups and individual interests. thus, even though teaching of 3Rs approaches may be achieved in various ways (Dewhurst, 2006;Vedani et al, 2007;Jukes, 2008;Gadgil, 2007;Akbarsha, 2007;Knight 2007a), the above arguments strongly suggest combining the establishment of a curriculum with the buildup of a dedicated academic structure (such as CAAt or the DoerenkampZbinden chairs). In this context, it should be mentioned that the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation has established an extra chair for education in life sciences in tiruchirappalli, India (Akbarsha et al, 2009).…”

Section: Breaking Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food for thought … on education in alternative methods in toxicology

Hartung

Blaauboer

Leist

2009

ALTEX

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Section: Breaking Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food for thought … on education in alternative methods in toxicology

Hartung

Blaauboer

Leist

2009

ALTEX

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“…Anatomy classes have traditionally used group activities with a kinesthetic approach to enhance student learning through dissection. While some object to animal dissection (Nobis, ; Akbarsha, ; Shetty, ), others still feel this is an essential part of student training (Elizondo‐Omaña et al, ; Rizzolo and Stewart, ; Sugand et al, ; HAPS, ). However, many institutions are exploring and finding that a variety of activities are effective teaching modalities (Franklin et al, ; Myers et al, ; Lujan and DiCarlo, ; Ernst and Colthorpe, ; Oh et al, ; Skinder‐Meredith, ; Chan et al, 2011; DeHoff et al, ; Herur et al, ; Naug et al, ; Bareither et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The implementation of clay modeling and rat dissection into the human anatomy and physiology curriculum of a large urban community college

Haspel

Motoike

Lenchner

2013

Anatomical Sciences Ed

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After a considerable amount of research and experimentation, cat dissection was replaced with rat dissection and clay modeling in the human anatomy and physiology laboratory curricula at La Guardia Community College (LAGCC), a large urban community college of the City University of New York (CUNY). This article describes the challenges faculty overcame and the techniques used to solve them. Methods involved were: developing a laboratory manual in conjunction with the publisher, holding training sessions for faculty and staff, the development of instructional outlines for students and lesson plans for faculty, the installation of storage facilities to hold mannequins instead of cat specimens, and designing mannequin clean-up techniques that could be used by more than one thousand students each semester. The effectiveness of these curricular changes was assessed by examining student muscle practical examination grades and the responses of faculty and students to questionnaires. The results demonstrated that the majority of faculty felt prepared to teach using clay modeling and believed the activity was effective in presenting lesson content. Students undertaking clay modeling had significantly higher muscle practical examination grades than students undertaking cat dissection, and the majority of students believed that clay modeling was an effective technique to learn human skeletal, respiratory, and cardiovascular anatomy, which included the names and locations of blood vessels. Furthermore, the majority of students felt that rat dissection helped them learn nervous, digestive, urinary, and reproductive system anatomy. Faculty experience at LAGCC may serve as a resource to other academic institutions developing new curricula for large, on-going courses.

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DNA barcoding using skin exuviates can improve identification and biodiversity studies of snakes

Khedkar

Tiknaik

Khedkar

et al. 2014

Mitochondrial DNA Part A

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Snakes represent a taxonomically underdeveloped group of animals in India with a lack of experts and incomplete taxonomic descriptions being the main deterrents to advances in this area. Molecular taxonomic approaches using DNA barcoding could aid in snake identification as well as studies of biodiversity. Here a non-invasive sampling method using DNA barcoding is tested using skin exuviates. Taxonomically authenticated samples were collected and tested for validation and comparisons to unknown snake exuviate samples. This approach was also used to construct the first comprehensive study targeting the snake species from Maharashtra state in India. A total of 92 skin exuviate samples were collected and tested for this study. Of these, 81 samples were successfully DNA barcoded and compared with unknown samples for assignment of taxonomic identity. Good quality DNA was obtained irrespective of age and quality of the exuviate material, and all unknown samples were successfully identified. A total of 23 species of snakes were identified, six of which were in the list of Endangered species (Red Data Book). Intra- and inter-specific distance values were also calculated, and these were sufficient to allow discrimination among species and between species without ambiguity in most cases. Two samples were suspected to represent cryptic species based on deep K2P divergence values (>3%), and one sample could be identified to the genus level only. Eleven samples failed to amplify COI sequences, suggesting the need for alternative PCR primer pairs. This study clearly documents how snake skin exuviates can be used for DNA barcoding, estimates of diversity and population genetic structuring in a noninvasive manner.

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Movement to curtail animal dissections in zoology curriculum: review of the Indian experience

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Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Food for thought … on education in alternative methods in toxicology

Food for thought … on education in alternative methods in toxicology

The implementation of clay modeling and rat dissection into the human anatomy and physiology curriculum of a large urban community college

DNA barcoding using skin exuviates can improve identification and biodiversity studies of snakes

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