Sectioning Clay Models Makes Anatomy & Development Tangible

Clay models have proved to be useful teaching aids for many topics in biology that depend on three-dimensional reasoning. Students studying embryonic development struggle to mentally reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of embryos and larvae by observing prepared slides of cross-sectional slices. Students who build clay models of embryos and slice them into cross sections, however, have a much easier time interpreting the slices of real embryos and gain a deeper understanding of development in three dimensions.