Non-Animal Research
10 Mar 2010
Alternatives to animal experiments in education
Experiments on living animals for educational purposes in the UK have thankfully been declining in recent years, although many thousands of animals continued to be killed for dissection, or just for their tissues.
These animals die for the demonstration of known facts and to provide students with ‘hands on’ experience of living systems. Many students find this massive sacrifice of animal life wasteful and ethically unacceptable. They are increasingly demanding a more humane approach to studying science that reflects their respect for the lives of other species. After all, most people study biology because of an interest in living organisms, not a desire to destroy life.
The good news is that there has never before been such a wide choice of alternatives to replace animals in education. Traditional audiovisual aids such as charts, slides, and models, have been joined by advanced interactive videos and computer programmes. Even the once humble 3-D models are now produced to a stunning degree of accuracy, depicting a range of animal species and a wealth of human anatomical features. These lifelike models can be taken apart to reveal internal anatomy, reassembled and re-used almost indefinitely.
Video films can now take viewers on a spectacular journey inside the body to watch systems and organs at work, thanks to the development of sophisticated tools fitted with cameras, X-ray scanners, magnetic resonance imaging, fibre optics, and cinemicrography. Who wants to see the inside of a dead animal when you can now see inside a living human being?
Dissection and anatomy videos exist for a whole host of different species as diverse as cats and clams, to sharks and starfish, as well as the more usual rats and frogs. Expert camera work and magnified close-ups allow the viewer a detailed view of internal organs, whilst commentary, graphic overlays, and animations can explain features and functions. A video film can replace the need for each member of the class to conduct a dissection; it can be rewound to elucidate or recap on certain features, and replayed endlessly.
Computers are now widely used in the classroom and students can have access to interactive software, CDs and DVDs, containing slides, diagrams, animated sequences and video footage, along with a sound track, which is watched by the student on a standard desk-top computer monitor. Students then interact with the program via the computer, for example answering questions, recording data, and controlling or selecting various sequences. They are an effective way of replacing animal experiments, by allowing students to both watch and interact with an animal demonstration on a screen.
Students with access to the Internet can visit a variety of online websites that provide interactive virtual dissections; detailed photographic anatomy atlases; and databases of alternatives. For example, the NORINA database lists details of over 3,800 audiovisual aids and other alternatives that can be used instead of animals for teaching many aspects of life sciences from school level up to undergraduate students. The database is freely available to search via the Internet at http://oslovet.veths.no
A similar online database is run by the European Resource Centre for Alternatives in Education at www.eurca.org
Such alternative approaches are not only more humane, but surveys have shown that they can be just as effective as animal practicals. Computer-based labs have resulted in equivalent [1,2] or significantly better [3] test scores than animal dissections. Another study showed that the test performance of students taught by an interactive videodisc, equalled that of students who actually participated in an animal experiment [4]. Similar results have been obtained with computer assisted learning (CAL) in teaching undergraduate physiology classes [5].
As well as the new interactive audiovisual products, there are approaches such as self-experimentation and experiments using plants or plant tissues. Self-experimentation can prove a highly memorable experience, with details of practical classes remaining vivid in students’ minds several years later. For example, students monitoring each other’s heart function, respiration, muscle physiology and blood pressure can be a highly relevant and effective learning experience. There is no doubt that interesting and challenging alternatives to animal practicals can be achieved by combining these different approaches.
Today’s life-science students have more choice of alternatives than ever before. Recent years have seen a change of attitudes in science education, with respect for life and the use of alternatives to animals become much more widely accepted. Some students may still find their access to alternatives limited due to a lack of resources within their school, college or university, but the humane education group InterNICHE (contact details below) run a loan system of some alternative products.
Students with ethical objections to using animals are now far less likely to be dismissed as squeamish, although it can still take courage for students to speak out and unenlightened views about animal use still persist in the life sciences. However students should take heart, as voicing concerns about animal suffering and objecting to animal practical classes is always worthwhile. Sometimes it only takes just one person in the right place at the right time to produce remarkable results!
References:
1. Kinzie, M.B., et al (1993). Journal of Research in Science Teaching 30(8):989-1000
2. Strauss, R.T. & Kinzie, M.B. (1994). The American Biology Teacher 56(7):398-402.
3. Leonard, W.H. (1992) Journal of Research in Science Teaching 29(1):93-102
4. Fawver et al. (1990) American Journal of Physiology 259:S11-S14.
5. Dewhurst et al. (1994) Advances in Physiology Education 12 (1):S95-S104
Resources
The International Network for Humane Education (InterNICHE)
A group working with students to support freedom conscience and with teachers to introduce alternatives to animal experiments. InterNICHE run an alternatives advisory service and alternatives loan system, and hold an annual conference. They have produced a book (details below) and a video (Alternatives in Education) promoting alternatives to animals in education.
Tel/Fax: 0116 210 9652. Email: coordinator@interniche.org
Website: www.interniche.org
From Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse, 2nd Edition, 2003. InterNICHE publication by Nick Jukes & Mihnea Chiuia. A comprehensive collection of resources for humane education with full details of over 500 state-of-the-art alternatives to the harmful use of animals in life sciences teaching.
NORINA Database of Alternatives
Online searchable database of over 3,600 items suitable for use as alternatives to animals in teaching of life sciences.
Website: http://oslovet.veths.no/NORINA/
European Resource Centre for Alternatives in Higher Education (EURCA)
Run a database of alternatives to animals in higher education.
Website: www.eurca.org
Animalearn
An American-based website providing details of alternatives to animals at all levels of life science education links to numerous online resources and some online demonstrations. Animalearn operates an alternatives loan system within the US only.
Website: www.animalearn.org
Learning Without Killing
A resource for students campaigning for humane education in schools and universities.
Website: www.learningwithoutkilling.org