Quiz Card Dissections
Quiz Card Dissections
by Ernie Brown
Here’s a pdf version for download: Quiz Card Dissections
Do you hate to think about doing classroom dissections in biology because the students tend to get unruly? Does your room resemble a zoo more than a place where learning is taking place? Do you feel that your students really appreciate the inherent value of the life of the animal that they’re dissecting. Do they appreciate the fact that the animal they are dissecting died so that they might learn more about how it lived? Respect for life and learning more about how the organisms lived are important objectives for any dissection. Too often specimens are viewed simply as “pieces of meat” to glibly chop up and discard at the end of the class period. I have enjoyed great success with a “Quiz Card” approach to dissections for the last several years. I feel that the students learn the material better and appreciate the total functioning organism more completely when they have finished their dissection. The technique can be used with any textbook or lab handout that supplements your dissection activity.
While the students are reading the procedure for the dissection, make a list of all of the organs they are expected to locate and learn about on the chalkboard. Then, write the name of each organ on a separate 3 X 5 card and show the class your “deck of cards”. Have the students work in pairs, either determined by the teacher or by the students themselves. After the students have completed the dissection and are confident they know the location and functions of each of the listed organs on their own specimen, they sign up on the chalkboard indicating they are ready for their quiz over the material.
Beginning with the first pair of names on the list, take your 3 X 5 cards to their desk and “make a deal” with them for their quiz. I usually make the quiz worth 20 points total and have each student of the pair pull two cards (face down) from the deck. Each 5 point card identifies the organ that student must locate and discuss without help from his teammate. After the first student has completed his 10 point portion of the quiz, the second student then locates and discusses the two organs on the cards he has selected. Each member of the team receives the composite score from their individual quizzes.
You can vary this activity easily by making the quiz worth more or less than 20 points. You can let each pair of students make their own “deal” by picking any combination of cards/points that meet the total points for the quiz. Sometimes the students like to “go for broke” and pick one card for 10 points or pick five cards for two points each. When students realize that they are going to be required to locate and discuss specific organs in their specimen, they are much more diligent during the dissection. Procedures are read thoroughly and cuts are made carefully leaving organs in place as much as possible rather than being removed and piled on the dissecting tray.
It is the responsibility of each team to conduct the dissection and learn the organs by working together. Even if one member of the team doesn’t want to touch the specimen, he is still accountable for using a dissecting needle to point to the organs on his 3 X 5 cards. They can still be involved in the dissection by reading the procedure to the person actually conducting the dissection. By combining the individual quiz scores for a total team score, the students work together to teach each other much better since they each have an investment in the final quiz score.
Ernie Brown – Trego Community High School,Wakeeny, KS 67672
