For some students, dissecting animals in class can be the highlight of the semester. For others, however, it’s cruel and … maybe kind of gross.
But biology class is getting a little more humane at a high school in Florida where students can now study the anatomy of frogs without having to poke and prod a once living, breathing, and hopping animal.
The high school worked with SynDaver, a company which designs and builds “sophisticated and synthetic humans and animals for surgical training, anatomy education and medical device testing”. The synthetic frogs are almost identical to real female frogs, including their size, texture, skin, and organs (including reproductive systems) which are made of synthetic wet tissues.
The company said the high school is the first in the world to try out the new technology, but it hopes to spread them nationwide – saving millions of frogs that get killed each year for dissection purposes.