Australia's Science Forum

What do you guys do dissections on? I have baking trays filled with wax which are looking quite grungy and they are not always easy to clean, so I am looking at replacing them. Maybe its a silly question but I am wondering if there is anything else that works better to cut up on.

We collect the polystyrene trays from supermarket packed meat and veges and reuse them. They can be pinned into, you can choose the size to match what you are chopping up and you can throw them away when you have finished if you want.

Hi
We use the thick plastic food cutting boards which I have drilled holes in the four corners to use to tie the rat for dissections. We bought the pack of cutting boards from the Reject shop and there was two different sizes in each pack.
These boards are really easy to clean and you can put in dishwasher if you have one.
I hope this helps.
Mary

We use normal plastic cutting boards, I wrap them in 2 sheets of newspaper, which the student then wraps the dissection in and places it in the garbage bin. The boards are usually quiet clean, then I run them through the dishwasher or hot soapy water if needed urgently for the next class.

We buy foam sheets from an art supplier and cut them to size.
When finished they are binned...no washing up and easy to store.

Depending what they are cutting up, we mainly use plastic dissection trays (heavy duty plastic dishes 130x190mm - from Q stores) for brains, hearts and eyes. For rats we have wooden boards (ex shelving) with nails in each corner. The plastic boards would be easier to clean, but we don't do rats that often.

Like Dime, we use large wooden boards for rats, but for smaller dissections we use plastic disposable dinner plates. No washing or cleaning, straight to the bin.
Lada

The Food Tech Department bought new plastic boards years ago and we got their old wooden ones topped with laminate. They were huge in size so we got the Wood Work teacher to cut them in half, so now we have a good collection and with the laminate on top they are quite easy to clean. We also have a few plain wooded ones but I try not to use them if possible.

we use corregated cardboard square, lined with a few sheets paper towel to preven juicy
run-off.

For rats, there are two holes poked into the corner of each piece of cardboard. Then the limbs of the rat are tied & attached by string, through these holes to secure them.
When disections finished, they go straight into the bin- no wash up!
Hearts are laid on the same set up, but without the holes

For smaller items like kidneys, brains or eyes, cardboard again, just smaller sized OR ice cream lids, lined with paper towel.

These all work really well... minimum fuss and clean up

We use old stool seats, we cover these in al foil. For really messy jobs. Some times we use a tray for the smaller items, that may fall or slide off the stool seats.

We use aluminium trays. And large petri dishes for eyes and kidneys.

We use thin white plastic cutting boards that have been cut in half, white tiles or just on newespaper. Thankfully we don't do rat dissection - just eyes, lungs, plucks, etc. Either the cutting board or tile is good and washes well in the dish washer.
Lou P.

We use metal dissecting trays. They used to have wax in them but I took it out, much easier to keep clean. Haven't done a rat dissection for 6 or more years so we don't need the wax anyway.

We use the QStores dissecting trays, 2 sizes, or wooden boards - including old stool seats.

Love all the different suggestions!!

Back when I lived somewhere that allowed rat dissections without annoying paperwork, we used to staple the little rats hands and feet to fridge box cardboard, rather like a crucifixion, only they were already dead (hopefully). No washing up etc etc.

I use chopping boards...the hard plastic ones from woolies and pop them in the dishwasher when finished with...come up sparkling every time

We crucify our rats too. I nail them to wooden boards. I make sure I use long enough nails so I can stack them on top of each other. It's a great space saver.

we also use hard plastic chopping boards from supermarkets - dishwashing makes it all super easy!