A group of Grade 9 students from 麻豆精选鈥檚 Okanagan Mission Secondary are advocating for a humane change in biology class.
Erin Work, Lexie Pfenning, Annabelle Lee, Lucia Nutley and Caitlin Mahony want their school 鈥� and the entire Central Okanagan School District 鈥� to phase out physical animal dissections and switch over to virtual dissections instead.
They argue that using technology to understand biology has many positive impacts, including students avoiding trauma when it鈥檚 time to cut open an animal, as well as making it more inclusive for students, who for religious or cultural reasons may not be able to participate in dissection, among others.
鈥淚t鈥檚 actually been proven that 88 per cent of students learn better using alternatives over actual animal dissections,鈥� Pfenning said. 鈥淭hese alternatives have been classroom-tested to give the same, and in many cases a better level, of education. It鈥檚 cost-effective, it鈥檚 ethical鈥� it reduces our environmental footprint.鈥�
The group said they have all been passionate about animal rights for a long time but they saw an opportunity to act through the competition Sustainable Development Challenge.
The group, called Our Voice for Change, first reached out to the BC SPCA to help them achieve their goal. The non-profit then helped them connect with the Society for Humane Science, a charity that works to 鈥渁chieve better science without animals鈥�. The charity鈥檚 founder and CEO Elisabeth Ormandy said this means helping students, schools and school districts access alternative resources.
Ormandy said there are various tools that can help teach biology, including apps for tablets that enable students to 鈥渂uild鈥� an animal, as well as other apps divided into body systems that enable students to 鈥渄issect鈥� a specimen, as well as virtual reality programs.
鈥淭here are other tools that aren鈥檛 as tech-involved. Clay modelling is extremely good for education where you have a plastic skeleton and you can put in the animal鈥檚 internal organs yourself. There are some paper kits as well, where you cut out organs and 鈥榖uild鈥� the animal,鈥� she said.
Ormandy and Our Voice for Change are now working together to form a pitch for the competition, hoping the group will win a grant, which can help them get the project off the ground and operational in their school to begin.
But the group said even if they don鈥檛 win the competition, they want to push forward with their project and hope that the entire school district takes it on.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten quite a positive response, but of course there are those who are hesitant or are against the use of alternatives but quite often after we鈥檝e explained the details of it and the pros and cons, they鈥檙e very open-minded,鈥� Lee said.
Our Voice for Change will be presenting their project pitch on Feb. 24.
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