Bill Reed Middle School in Loveland to Use 1/2 Priced Frogs

A penny saved is a frog dissected.

Budget cuts have lead a teacher in Loveland to find a creative way to save some dollars, while teaching kids the insides of our green friends.

Get the story- inside!

The Thompson R2-J School District has had to slice its curriculum and instruction budget by more than $1 million over the last couple of years, so finding a way to dissect frogs became a project for a teacher at Bill Reed Middle School in Loveland.

The Reporter-Herald has the story on how a 7th grade science teacher Jacque Rideout and other teachers need to find a way to make dollars stretch, and Jacque found a way to get frogs for dissecting in the classroom at half the usual price.

From The Reporter-Herald:

At $2.37, rather than $4.85 the previous year, the 75 discounted amphibians put a fair bit of strain on the science teachers’ total, shared budget. But the dissection is a first glimpse at a science-minded future for some students, Rideout said.

“That’s how we find our future surgeons and kids interested in the medical and veterinary professions,” she said.

Some of Rideout’s peers, however, have switched to virtual dissections in order to divert funds into other parts of the curriculum as state standards become more demanding. That doesn’t make sense to Rideout, though, who believes more financial backing should accompany the push.

“If the U.S. is trying to lean toward science and innovations … we’re cutting in the wrong places,” she said.

Get more on the story and how you can get involved with the school district’s budget planning for next year from The Reporter-Herald.