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How to Dissect a Frog for Middle School

Frog dissection gives middle school students hands-on experience with biology concepts and anatomy. Similarly to humans, frogs have skin, muscle, organs and bones. When working in small groups of two or three, each student receives plenty of cutting and pinning work.

Things You'll Need

  • Dissection tray
  • Pushpins
  • Scalpel
  • Small scissors
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Instructions

    • 1

      Turn the frog onto its back and spread out its limbs. Pin down the four legs to the tray with pushpins. You want the frog to stay in place and the limbs to stay out of the way.

    • 2

      Make a small vertical incision at the throat with the scalpel. Do not cut too deeply, or you will cut through the muscle under the skin. Continue the incision with your small pair of scissors down the frog body between the hind legs. Make two horizontal incisions across the body -- one at the shoulders, and one right above the hind legs.

    • 3

      Peel the skin flaps back to expose the muscle covering the entire abdomen. Pin the skin flaps to the tray.

    • 4

      Identify the pectoralis, rectus abdominis and deltoid muscles before moving onto the next cutting step. Repeat the same types of cuts, but this time only cut through the muscles. You also need to cut through the sternum to expose the organs. When you reach this point, use your scissors.

    • 5

      Identify the organs, and remove them when necessary to see others. Begin with the stomach, pancreas, intestine and gall bladder. Identify and remove the heart and lungs. Move on to the kidneys and spleen and the testes or ovaries.

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