Dissection For OCR A-Level Biology

Hi, I'm struggling to find the specification and choices for OCR A-Level biology, so I thought I'd ask here. Is dissection of a dead animal required, or can I dissect a plant instead? You can think me silly if you want but I despise animal dissection, so I just wanted to check. Thanks for any replies.

Reply 1

__syntaxerror__

Original post by {Moss}

https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-a-level-gce/biology-a-h020-h420-from-2015/planning-and-teaching/

look under the practical activities tab on this link

Reply 2

username6022349

Original post by __syntaxerror__

https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-a-level-gce/biology-a-h020-h420-from-2015/planning-and-teaching/

look under the practical activities tab on this link

Hi, thanks for the link but I can't actually see if there are any alternatives to the dissection. It only states them without saying, I'm not sure whether OCR don't offer any alternatives or if they don't say there?

Reply 3

watermelon.girl1

Hi,I’m doing OCR A level biology, and we have done a lamb heart dissection and fish gills, both of which we had the choice of just watching if we didn’t want to interact. My class also did a rat dissection (🤢) which wasn’t a required PAG so I skipped that one!! I think if you are able to ‘observe’ then that would be the best option, otherwise you risk not getting ticked off for certain practicals (I don’t actually know what the consequences of this are though!) For the animal dissections we have done, I don’t think there would be a ‘plant’ alternative I.e looking at respiration, but my college were very accommodating with supplying different animal organs for religious reasons etc. Hope this helps :smile: