Science News – Dissecting Cane Toads

Excitement was mounting throughout all of last week when the news came that our Cane Toads had arrived!! Girls were counting their sleeps until the big day! Finally, at Friday lunch, it was Dissection Day (D-Day!) and the lab was choc-a-block with eager students.

After observing the external anatomy, identifying whether it was male or female, and observing the adaptations found in the mouth to prevent prey from escaping, students made incisions on the abdomen and observed the organs inside.

Some groups were careful surgeons worthy of becoming doctors, while others showed gusto and chopped away with fervour. All groups learnt about how the organs and systems were interconnected and some of the differences between toads and mammals e.g. fat is stored in long, finger-like fat bodies in toads instead of adipose tissue in mammals.

One group even managed to neatly dissect the skin from the legs and applied electricity to cause the leg to twitch.

The dissection was so popular that the Science Department is considering running further lunch-time dissections in the future.

Mia Sharma  
Science Teacher