Comparison of the effects of clay modeling & cat cadaver dissection on high school students’ outcomes & attitudes in a human anatomy course.

Increasing public concern for the use of animal dissection in education is driving development and testing of alternatives to animal use. Clay modeling has proven successful in achieving comparable or superior learning at post-secondary levels, but has not yet been tested at secondary levels. This study tested the effectiveness and appeal of clay models vs. cat cadaver dissection in teaching human anatomy to high school students. Student performance on a content knowledge assessment increased following both the model and dissection laboratories. The use of clay models produced better short-term learning outcomes in human anatomy for high school students when compared with cat dissection techniques, although this improvement was not retained in student final examination scores. No significant differences were found in student perceptions of enjoyment or usefulness between the two approaches. Students found the clay models both useful and enjoyable, but most students (in both clay model and cat dissection laboratories) still chose dissection as the preferred technique after the laboratory exercise. However, the proportion of students who chose dissection decreased after the laboratory, for both the clay model and dissection laboratories.