InterNICHE video ‘Alternatives in Education’ text

Alternatives in Education:
new approaches for a new millennium

(beginning narration)

Education and training in the life sciences require that students learn a diversity of skills as well as the traditional knowledge base.

Graduates who enter the professions must be familiar with the technology employed in today's laboratories and clinics, and with the design and performance of experiments.

Of equal importance is the ability to communicate well with patients, and the sensitivity to appreciate complex ecological systems.

Some will also need hands-on experience of animals and animal tissue for their careers.

All students of biological science and veterinary and human medicine perform practical work to illustrate knowledge and to gain a number of these skills, practical work which for some involves dissection and animal experimentation.

But the tools and approaches used by teachers are evolving in response to developments in technology and the demands of students and society itself.

In this film, we investigate new directions in life science education, sampling classical experiments where conventional animal use has been replaced by a range of progressive alternative methods.

NERVE PHYSIOLOGY

SimNerv:

Dr Hans Braun:

SimNerv is a simulation of the classic nerve experiment which has been done for many years in physiology courses. I contributed to the programming of this SimSeries. I was responsible for the physiological background, for the physiological correctness of the programs. This was some years ago when we had many discussions with students who didn't want to do these experiments with animals, and finally we decided that it is no longer possible to do the experiments and we thought about alternatives.

SimNerv consists of three parts: 'wetlands', 'preparation' and 'experiments'. 'Wetlands' is to introduce the students into the program: it shows pictures of different frogs, and you can listen to the sounds they make. The second part comprises video sequences of the preparation of the frog's nerve. The third part is the main part, and presents a virtual laboratory with all the devices that are necessary to do the experiments. The students can place the two nerves in stimulating and recording electrodes, and can stimulate the nerves and do the experiments as in the real lab.

When the students do the experiments with a real nerve they are always worried that they might do something wrong, and then destroy the nerve. They would have to prepare a frog again and to use another nerve. With the

simulation program they can do the experiment properly, and by really doing it the learning is more effective.

Let's use a single stimulus to demonstrate a different effect which also shows one of the main advantages of such a program. You can use this thread to tie off the nerve at any place you choose. When you tie it off here between the stimulating and recording electrodes, the action potential will not reach the recording electrodes. What happens should be a zero line, without any action potential. And now you can do what you cannot do in the real experiment: you can remove the thread, and the nerve will respond as before.

Leif Bjellin:

At one of the InterNICHE conferences there was a demonstration of an early version of the SimNerv program. I was lucky enough to get a copy of this program, I was allowed to use it before it was generally sold. So I introduced it to the students and to my department. And it was very successful, everyone liked it, because it is a very powerful program.

Hans:

I myself was very surprised how well it works. In some parts it might even be better than the real experiment.

BioPac

Marie Briggman:

I highly recommend this equipment to universities. Both we teachers and the students are very content with the results.

Per Ekstrom:

As soon as you save time, as soon as you have a set-up which saves you time, then you will also save money. You can compress your schedule, you can do more experiments in one day, in one week.... so there is definitely a money-saving aspect. BioPac is a combination of measuring equipment with which you can measure a lot of things depending on how you set it up. We use it for the students to measure nerve conduction velocity on themselves. It can also be used to measure various other parameters. It really has a lot of possibilities.

Marie:

First we put electrodes on the under-arm of the students. We put one at the elbow and one just beneath the hand. And then we stimulate at the elbow and we registrate the evoked nerve impulse just beneath the hand at that electrode. We can visualise these nerve impulses on the data screen.

Per:

The combination of SimNerv and BioPac has worked out very well out with the students. They see the advantages of first doing all the adjustments on the SimNerv program, and then taking that experience with them to the BioPac equipment.

Marie:

I think the pedagogic value of this equipment is the great advantage.

 

MUSCLE PHYSIOLOGY

Myograph

Wolfgang Kuck

A hundred or more years ago, when the experiments with the nerve and muscle of the frog started, is a long time in the past, and now hi-tech equipment exists, delivering the same or better quality, without using animals.

The Myograph describes the interaction between the nerve and muscles, and documents the results of each test as an answer to a specified stimulus. The test person fits their right hand in the apparatus, and must find the correct position for the EMG connections, for the power sensor, and so on. Then they must find the correct position for the stimulating electrode.

On the computer, the menu offers eight experiments. When you have made your choice then you can optimise all the parameters for very good experiments in this section. The experiments work automatically. In the computer program evaluation you have the possibility to analyse the complete results of all the reactions of your body. The results are absolutely identical between biological use of a dead frog and human self-testing with the Myograph.

SimMuscle

Hans Braun:

Students like to use the SimMuscle program much more than doing the experiments with the real nerve muscle preparations. SimMuscle is arranged principally in the same way as SimNerv. There are three different parts: firstly 'wetlands', showing some frogs with some sounds. The second part shows the preparation of the muscle, beginning in the same way as the preparation of the nerve.

With this muscle we are going into the lab, to the practical course which is the third and main part of the program. There you have all the devices that you need to do the experiment. You have to switch on the devices and then you have to adjust the parameters. You can apply single pulses, or double pulses to see the superposition of two contractions, and you can apply trains of pulses to analyse tetanic contractions and so on.

There is plasticity in each isolated muscle. We didn't consider this plasticity here, because it only occurs in the artificial situation of an isolated preparation, not in the physiological situation. This plasticity disturbs the recordings sometimes very seriously.

The students are free to try to learn by doing much more than in the real experiment.

 

藥理學

Microlabs
Henk van Wilgenburg
其中一項優點是：你可以在更短的時間內，做更多的事；因為這個，你能做更多，你可以更專注於真正的教學目標。過往，學生為了儀器設定，而倍感困惑。我們可以使用電腦模擬，很簡單就做到了。
1970年代，當時學生拒絕做動物實驗，因此而開發了Microlabs。Microlabs是由許多課程組合而成。這裡我們呈現的是老鼠行為的課程。我們可以看到各種不同的行為，學生可任意點擊不同行為的圖像，之後便可檢視是否以正確的方式完成。這是一個好的方式，訓練學生，做一般與特別施藥的行為研究。
我們可以展示老鼠、大鼠、兔子與其他動物的病徵，以及其行為模式的影片。所以，你可以看到一陣陣的痙攣與持續的抽搐，兩者之間的差異，這雖然不是很棒的圖像，但是這等慘狀，以後便不必再重複發生了。我們能看到，類似strychnine的毒性藥物所造成的效應。所以，現在我們凝視這主角，展示對大鼠給藥後的一系列連續病徵。直到1960年代，這些便是學生要做的動物實驗；今此以後，我們將無需再做這些了。
MicroLabs也有動力學的動態課程。這裡我們僅需做出選擇：我們使用雌性成鼠，進行例行性的腹腔注射，依照動物體重決定注射劑量。例如，一分鐘後，我們觀察動物的多重官能反應，並持續在2分鐘3分鐘後做觀察。很明顯地不再自主的移動，所以我們便在5分鐘之後，再行觀察。現在學生必須決定是否要繼續多等一等；還是多打入新的注射劑。
然後，我們有許多分離組織的模擬，例如實驗鼠迴腸、肌肉標本、神經橫膈膜標本等等。這個課程仍以DOS為介面，可在任何電腦上使用。很快的，我們會有 Windows版本的Microlabs；但對於使用老舊電腦的國家，他們可以使用Microlabs的原始版本。你可以利用這個課程，做到許多你不能在真實動物身上做到的事情。

 

外科手術

POP- Trainer
Gerhard Szinicz
POP-Trainer 真是一部設計簡單、容易使用的手術模擬設備。這模擬近乎完美，特別是你可以執行出血管理的訓練。只要有需要，你便能做這項訓練，不會有任何動物會死亡。
你從屠宰場得到一件動物器官，比方說，肝臟或肺臟，並插管至器官的主動脈。然後輸入染色的自來水，用以模擬血液，再置於訓練設備裡頭。它是一個封閉系統，所以非常乾淨。它能完美模擬正常的輸血流程，所以你可以依照個人需要來做訓練。你可以從雙手操作開始做訓練，你開始實際解剖動脈、靜脈、輸尿管等結構。而最具挑戰性的問題是軟組織相關的手術操作、部分腎臟切除。而且可以在這個設備裡，使用各式現代化的裝置，例如：超音波剪切、高頻技術與雷射。你可以加諸任何裝置到這個設備。
你可以使用所有的器官。通常我們使用帶有膽囊的肝臟、帶有腸樣本的結腸、帶有主動脈的腎臟。我們很開心能看到，當下課鐘響時，受訓者不願停止他們的訓練課程。
 

 

ANATOMY

DigiDiss

Christoffer Schander

DigiDiss is a computer program which simulates a dissection of various animals. It is based on stills, quick-time VR video and animation. You use it on the computer, cutting up the animal. You get all the organs identified, and in connection to this you get histology, taxonomy, phylogeny, and so on, so it is much more integrated with other disciplines than the regular teaching.

There are different sections within DigiDiss, and the program begins with the animals themselves. Right now we include the rat, the cod, the dogfish, the frog, and the hen, and later on we will add modules for invertebrates. Then there is a section dealing with the actual techniques and the instruments used in the dissection. There are video sequences showing the actual incisions in the animal and there is quick time VR, 3D figures showing different structures like the heart, the skeleton and the exterior of the animal. There is also a phylogenetic part showing the relationships between the different animal groups, and there is a taxonomical part dealing with their placement in the hierarchy of nature.

Kristina Wereen

If you do a real dissection, if you make one mistake you can't go back and start all over again: you have to continue or you have to interrupt your dissection. But if you use DigiDiss you can go back and forward as you want, and you can work with it by yourself. I think it is very good.

Christoffer

It allows for unlimited repetition, and it also allows you to make direct comparisons between different animals, to compare the histology between different groups. As it is now, the histology course is usually separated from the morphology course, which means that first you study the histology and you might not even know what kind of organ you are looking at, and then a couple of months later you see the actual organ. Here you see it all at the same time, which I see as a big advantage.

(Ethically-sourced animals)

Siri Martinsen

My name is Siri Martinsen and I am a 3rd year veterinary student at the Veterinary College in Norway. As a veterinary student I have to have knowledge about how animals look internally, and one way of doing that is of course dissection. Animals are killed for dissections, but I don't think it has to be that way. You can also use naturally dead animals, as I did in my studies.

One solution is to call animal owners and ask them if they can give you their animals that die naturally. In that way I got horses, cows and sheep for dissection. And it is a very good solution for veterinary colleges who want to use naturally dead animals to link up with veterinary clinics, both for small and large animals.

And so I brought the animals to the pathology lab - it is important that it's a non-infectious disease or an injury - and then I did the dissections on the ethically-sourced animals.

The use of animals for dissection is actually the most common harmful use of animals in education. Both in biology and veterinary medicine, and also in many other fields, they use killed animals for dissections, so I think that starting to use naturally dead animals is really one of the most important ways of decreasing the number of animals killed for education.

Vertebrate Dissection Guides

(NARRATION)

Within biological science education there are several species of vertebrate that are used regularly for teaching anatomy and physiology. At the University of Portsmouth in England, media producers and biology teachers have combined their skills and resources to produce videofilm of professionally-performed dissections. These Vertebrate Dissection Guides feature the dogfish, the frog, the pigeon and the rat.

Each 50 minute video from the series investigates one of these species. The videos use high resolution photography, colour overlays and 3D animated graphics to teach the anatomy and evolutionary significance of the vertebrate under study.

The videos begin with the external features of the animal. To progress on to the internal structures, the animal is first prepared for dissection. The student is then guided through the different stages of the practical by a narrator. For each species, there is a detailed investigation of the digestive, urino-genital, circulatory, and other systems.

The narrator identifies the organs and surrounding structures, and describes their functional relationships.

The motivation behind the production of the Vertebrate Dissection Guides was to improve the student understanding of comparative anatomy. Teachers have found that this video resource can often provide more information than the dissection itself. It also offers students the freedom of choice over their preferred learning style, creating a better learning environment.

 

動物保定

Koken Rat
Leif Bjellin
Koken Rat是由多種塑膠與矽膠所製成的人工動物，它讓你有真實老鼠的感覺。第一件你所需要的訓練是如何適當的保定老鼠，而這很容易便可藉由Koken Rat達成。你會學到如何以兩指緊握脖子附近、靠近耳際的皮，然後以其餘手指和手掌緊握其他部分的皮。
下一件事便是學習如何以導管餵食老鼠。學生能體驗到：假如順著老鼠的背部結構插入導管，導管便幾乎可自動的滑進胃裡頭。利用這老鼠透明的部分，你能親眼看到導管是否正確的置入老鼠體內：妳也能看到氣管、食道與胃。
然後，或許最重要的是，我們會使用它做尾靜脈的內靜脈注射。或許就像在真正的老鼠身上一樣，你或多或少可以清楚看到側面的尾靜脈，而且當你認為能發現它們，便能開始做注射訓練。你可以訓練、訓練再訓練。至少我知道瑞典的獸醫系學生正在使用它。如果以前沒看過它，他們第一眼會覺得有點好笑，但確定的是，他們一定會喜歡它的。
 

VIEWS ON HUMANE EDUCATION

Tannetje Koning

I'm Tannetje Koning, I live in the Netherlands, I studied veterinary medicine in Utrecht, finished my studies in 1994 and immediately afterwards bought this practice in Zeewolde. I think you can become a perfect vet without doing any animal experiments. You can use animals that are put to death because you can't heal them, and a lot of experiments you can replace in this way. I think even surgery you can learn better from a veterinarian than from doing an animal experiment because then you see the whole surgery, the whole operation, and you see the animal recover.

When I was studying I wasn't really sure whether I wanted to be a veterinarian or not. If they had forced me to do animal experiments it just wouldn't have been worth the cost, and I would have stopped. I think that if you do animal experiments you care less about animals, I think you will be acting differently towards other animals, and maybe towards people too. So I think it is harmful to do animal experiments - you are not as respectful towards animals as you should be.

Kerstin Lindholm-Kiessling

I built a course which would give good physiological knowledge and experience without using animal experiments. So to me the norm is the course without animal experiments, because they are not necessary. There are so many ways of demonstrating physiological principles that you do not need animal experiments.

Leif Bjellin

As far as I can see I can't find any disadvantage with the alternatives. If there was one I wouldn't pick up the alternative. I wouldn't replace a good old animal experiment with something that wasn't that good.

Jonathan Balcombe

There's no question that students learn effectively using alternative methods. There are close to 20 published studies in the academic literature that I'm aware of that compare the performance of students using alternatives with those using traditional animal-based methods. These studies have found that students using the alternatives learn as well as, and in some cases actually better, than the students using animals.

Kerstin

You must remember that in education its a question of teaching knowledge that is already known, its not a question of finding new knowledge. And its also a question of letting students do things with their own hands and

detect things themselves, but its always things that are known in the end. And therefore it is not necessary to have animals involved at all.

Jonathan

We also need to question the kind of message we're sending to students when animals are harmed in educational settings. It's a sad irony that whereas the laboratory equipment we use is valued and re-used, the animals are treated as throw-away objects and thrown into the garbage at the end of the exercise. That's very disturbing in my mind given that one of the fundamental tenets of life-science education is to teach respect for life.

Kerstin

The European Convention states very clearly that only those students who need animal experimentation for their coming profession should take part in that kind of course, so ordinary students who do not intend to use it for their coming profession should have alternatives only.

 

InterNICHE [formerly EURONICHE]

Nick Jukes

InterNICHE is the International Network for Humane Education, working with students to support freedom of conscience, and with teachers to introduce alternatives to animal experiments.

Ursula Zinko

We go out to universities and to seminars and demonstrate alternatives ourselves, and there is also the possibility to get hands-on experience of the different alternatives by visiting our conferences.

Nick

There are a lot of different people involved in the network, and people come from many different angles. InterNICHE tries to be the 'melting pot' to allow discussion about humane education. Many people are actually students objecting to animal experiments, teachers who have developed alternatives, and others who have come along to see what alternatives there are to harmful animal use.

Ursula

InterNICHE mainly works by disseminating information on alternatives, students' rights, and legislation.

Nick

We feel it's important that student-teacher conflict is minimised, and so we would encourage students to talk to the teacher to find out about the teaching objectives of any practical and then to look into the alternatives, or combination of alternatives, that could replace that animal use.

Ursula

Today there is a wide range of alternatives available, and if you combine different teaching aids and different approaches you get a high-quality humane education that can fully meet all the teaching objectives.

Nick

The InterNICHE Alternatives Loan System is a collection of different alternatives which can replace harmful animal use. We developed this system to enable teachers and students to borrow and familiarise themselves with the different products that are available.

Ursula

InterNICHE has produced a book called 'from Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse', which is a reference guide to over 500 alternatives. It gives details of their practical application, specification and source.

Nick

We encourage teachers to contact InterNICHE if they have questions about particular animal practicals and what alternatives or combination of alternatives could replace them, so we offer an Alternatives Advisory Service, and we also have literature and a website which can provide further information.