Fifteen-year-old Bar Ferents has done her fair share of research. In fact, she has taken a stab at digging up information about the controversial topic of animal dissection.
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Staff photo by joe camporeale
High school student Bar Ferents examines her research in hopes of finding an alternative to the use of dissection in middle school classrooms.
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Two years ago, when Ferents was in seventh grade at Tenafly Middle School, she was required to dissect a frog in her life science class.
"I wasn’t grossed out," she said. "It was more that it felt wrong because I love animals but I did it because it was a class requirement."
She decided to pursue the topic of animal dissection because she doesn’t agree with killing animals for research, and she wanted to explore other options and share her findings. One of the things she discovered in her months of research is that by a New Jersey statute, students in grades K-12 may refuse to dissect or harm any animal as part of a course and still receive class credit for choosing an alternative, such as a computer program.
"No one knew in seventh grade that we had a choice to dissect but students shouldn’t have to choose between what they think is right and their grade in science."
Ferents is participating in the ROGATE program in the Tenafly school district. ROGATE, which stands for Resources Offered for Gifted And Talented Education, encourages middle and high school students to pursue an independent research project based on a cutting-edge topic of interest.
Ferents has already received a bronze award, which gives her the opportunity to distinguish herself as a researcher and go for the gold this year. Each candidate must complete certain requirements, including volunteering in the community and presenting their findings to an audience outside of school.
Ferents began her research by surveying 90 of her fellow classmates to see how they felt about their lesson in dissection. The overwhelming response was that students remembered the smell while only a small percentage actually responded positively to the project.
To further her research, she interviewed doctors, nurses and teachers, all of whom had never dissected an animal but rather performed vivisection, cutting bodies that are alive but unconscious. The purpose of vivisection is to study the involuntary systems of the body. Because dissection involves the use of dead animals whose bodies are no longer changing, it would be easy to imitate in a computer program.
In Ferents’ opinion, it’s unnecessary to have students complete a dissection at such a young age because most are unsure about their career paths. She feels using an alternative program would send a better message to children to respect animals and provide them with a better, more memorable lesson that didn’t leave them remembering only the terrible stench.
Ferents will be presenting her research in a 15-minute presentation to the district curriculum committee on why they should consider alternative programs for dissection lessons.
A member of the district curriculum committee and Tenalfy Middle School’s Staff Developer and Enrichment Specialist, Diane Schulthes has been involved with the ROGATE program since 1979 and she has been working with Ferents for the past couple years. Schulthes very much believes in the program because it’s teaching students research skills and real world applications. "This is really a good foot in the door for them to realize what goes into preparing an article for publication," she said.
In addition to her presentation, Ferents plans on attending the upcoming lesson on dissection in the middle school’s life science class and hopes to be able to convince the students they can learn just as well from alternatives.
She plans on sharing her knowledge in high school and although unsure of her future area of study, she will try to take a stand in college in hopes that it will inspire and inform others. "Some people are completely unaware that you have a choice of whether or not to dissect," she said. "Choosing not to kill innocent animals and still learning the same knowledge, that’s the better choice."
E-mail: andrews@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6723
