Teacher's Guide for Fetal Pig Dissection

The Student Handouts are available in these formats. You are free to modify these documents.

download pdf google doc

The student handout has questions and diagrams to label, the answer key is available at Teachers Pay Teachers for a small fee to goes toward support and maintenance of biologycorner.com

 

Some Things To Consider...

1. Do you have space with a sink? Pigs are a lot more involved than frogs and the preservatives will need to be drained and pigs rinsed. This is not a good dissection for classrooms that do not have sinks.

2. Have your students completed the frog dissection? The pig is more advanced, students should have a basic understanding of dissection protocols.

3. Have you ordered the right specimens? Pigs will need to be ordered from a biological supply company. If they are not injected, the circulartory system is very difficult to view. Generally, 1 pig for two students is a good match, but you could get away with 3-4 students per pig.

4. Do you have enough equipment? Goggles are required for all dissections. Latex gloves are optional, though generally preferred. Students should always wash hands even if they wore gloves. Many chemicals will seep through the latex. I have switched to nitrile gloves because it provides more of a barrier from harsh chemicals, but they are slightly more expensive.

 

Grading and Assesments

Assessment. I take a grade on the completion of this lab guide. But as worksheets go, you do want the students to work out the answers together and ask for help when needed. Generally I use a quick and easy method to grade it. Each section is worth 5 pts. If its completed and looks mostly right, then they get the full 5 pts. Reduce pts if there are blanks or incorrect answers.

The biggest part of their grade comes from the LAB PRACTICAL. This is where pigs are set up at stations with numbered or colored tags in the structures. Students have 1 minute at each station to identify the structure and write it on their answer sheet. This is done in complete silence with no working together. Depending on the class, I may or may not allow them a word bank. Honors classes do not get a word bank usually unless I have an IEP or student that needs differentiation. The sheets below can be printed for the practical, they are numbered 1-50, though you don't need to use all of the blanks. Just make sure your practical contains enough stations to keep students busy. If you have 30 students, you can have 25 stations with questions, and 5 "rest stations" interspersed.

Lab Practical Blanks

Also print out the Fetal pig lab guide - this just lists all of the structures they need to find with a checkbox. It makes for a good reference and study guide.

For review, point students to this page: "The Ultimate Pig Dissection Review" which contains diagrams, gallery photos and links to practice quizzes.