The Digital Frog Blog

When we set out to re-launch our web site earlier this year, we wanted to make it easier than ever to find out about our range of educational software products, try them for yourself and do a better job of opening communication with educators and parents (not to mention, with each other… but more on that part soon.)

What we lacked, however, was an easy way for you to order the software directly from us. But no longer:

Introducing the online Digital Frog Shop.

As of today, all of our products can be purchased online, directly from Digital Frog International. Everything from single-license versions of our virtual frog dissection, anatomy and ecology program to building site licenses of any of our three Digital Field Trips (or even the new Digital Field Trip Series DVD). You can even order a DemoWare CD for just a $5 shipping and handling fee.

We are able to accept all major credit cards, using Paypal for safe and secure payment processing. (And no, you do not need a Paypal account to purchase from us.) We’ll ship to anywhere in the world and all our products are backed by a 30-day money back guarantee. (See our terms and conditions for more details.)

If you are an educator who needs to place your order with a PO, we’re set up for you too. You can submit your order through the Digital Frog Shop, along with a PO number. We just ask you to follow-up with a fax of the PO on your school’s letterhead and we’ll take care of the rest.

So, come on in! We’re open for business and glad we can make it even easier to provide our educational software to your students.

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Sitting anxiously awaiting the signs of spring, I was listening to a radio program asking listeners to call in with their favorite signs of spring. It got me thinking about mine. Thinking about it I realized I have favorites for different senses. I love to see the first buds of green poking their way out of my garden or the new leaf buds on the trees; of course the early flowers are great too.

Spring has a smell to me, rain and new earth, with last year’s vegetation composting on the ground it adds to that rich earthy smell. Sometimes the smell can be too much, like when the local farmers spread the manure on the new spring fields!

My favorite sound is definitely the Spring Peepers. On my evening walks with the dogs I pass by a couple of wet areas and the chorus of frog chirps is unbelievable. The Peepers are the first frogs out in the spring and can be found in most of eastern North America. These amazing little guys are only .75-1.25 inches long yet they sing a mighty song. We have had great fun learning different frog calls with The Digital Frog 2.5 program. In the ecology section many frog and toad species are investigated and you can listen to and learn their calls.

To hear the distinctive call of the spring peepers, click on the player below.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I also enjoy the earthy flavor of fiddle heads found on our walks (though we usually find them after they unfurl). Now that spring is here I can feel the sun and breeze on my face as I no longer need everything covered up!

What are your favorite Spring experiences?

Add your Spring comments for a chance to win a copy of ScienceMatrix: Cell Structure and Function.

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Being dubbed the “frog lady” by all and sundry results in friends and family alerting me to all things froggy.

So I regularly receive emails about froggy topics such as the 70-million-year-old fossil of a giant frog unearthed in Madagascar, the killer disease chytridiomycosis (a fungal disease that has been blamed for the extinction of one-third of the 120 frog species lost since 1980) and even an article about an Iranian woman giving birth to a frog (and the date was not April 1!).

Yesterday, I received several emails about the recent discovery of a lungless frog in Indonesia. One thing that bothered me about some of the articles was the implication that it is unusual for frogs to breathe through the skin as it’s know that frogs breathe in three different ways: though their mouths, lungs and skin. So I consulted the respiratory system module in the Anatomy and Physiology section of The Digital Frog 2.5. This is a small part of what it has to say:

Frogs have three different methods of respiration, or gas exchange:

• cutaneous respiration takes place across the skin,
• buccopharyngeal respiration occurs in the mouth,
• pulmonary respiration uses the nares, mouth, and lung

On land, most oxygen absorption occurs in the lungs. In water, most gas exchange takes place across the skin, but even the most aquatic frogs must come up to the surface to breathe. Most carbon dioxide is released across the skin. While hibernating, frogs do not use their lungs and depend on cutaneous respiration.

It seems frogs are much more versatile than us humans. But then, of course, we are not amphibians.

If you have any quirky frog stories to share, add a comment for your chance to win free software.

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We recently returned from the National Science Teachers’ Conference in Boston, exhausted but at the same time exhilarated. Our booth was busy the whole time and teachers were excited about our software. One lady rushed up to our booth insisting “I cannot live without Digital Frog”. We love quotes like this, even it is a little extreme, and probed further. This teacher has been using The Digital Frog 2 for many years to prepare her class for the wet lab. We have asked her to write about her experiences in our new forum which we will be launching soon for teachers and homeschoolers to share their experiences.

Another teacher purchased a Building Site License for ScienceMatrix: Cell Structure and Function last year and told us that her students scored higher marks on this subject than any other class she has ever taught.

A special ed teacher was extremely excited about our Digital Field Trip series to help his mixed grade class of 7 to 12 year olds.

Of course, our goal in attending these conferences is to showcase our products to teachers who have never seen them before, but we get energized by stories from teachers who are using the products. One experienced biology teacher approached our booth with some reluctance having been asked to check out dissection alternatives by his colleagues. We showed him The Digital Frog 2.5 and he then admitted that he had been completely biased against all dissection alternatives, but was now planning on recommending a district-wide purchase!

I was asked at the last minute to present The Digital Frog 2.5 at a presentation hosted by Animalearn (who loan out dissection alternatives free of charge, including The Digital Frog 2, their most popular loan item). Although The Digital Frog 2.5 has been rated the best dissection alternative many times, we do not consider it a dissection alternative program. It’s an anatomy and physiology learning tool, supported by an interactive frog dissection. After all, the ultimate goal of dissecting in schools is to help students understand their own bodies, not to teach them how to wield a scalpel.

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At 8 p.m. on March 29, the world will turn off its lights for just one hour – Earth Hour.

Some of you may already know about Earth Hour, I know I didn’t until my daughters told me about it. The idea started last year, with World Wildlife Fund in Australia pioneering the first Earth Hour. Almost 2.3 million Sydney residents participated‚ including more than 2,100 businesses. Just one short hour resulted in a 10% reduction on the electrical grid, saving 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of taking about 50,000 cars off the road for an hour. This year the effort is global, with six continents and as many as 20 cities participating. By all of us doing a little bit we can show that it IS possible to take action on climate change.

We are going to participate in my house because climate change is the biggest environmental threat to our planet and one of the main concerns for my family. We are already seeing its impact. Participating in Earth Hour is a simple way to show that we want to be a part of the solution and it sends a powerful message to others that, together, we can make a difference. We will do our part earlier than March 29th as I will be away at the National Science Teachers Association Conference in Boston on that date. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by organized Earth Hour activities going on in Boston on the 29th.

Turning the lights off for one hour seems like such a small thing, but the campaign is also about awareness. I am telling all my friends and family about Earth Hour with the hope that some of them will get involved and participate and learn more about the impact we have on the earth every day.

To register yourself and your family or for more information go to the WWF Earth Hour page.

It doesn’t have to end at 9pm on March 29th. To help support our continued efforts, WWF-Canada has created The Good Life‚ a fun and interactive online community for concerned Canadians who want to stop talking about climate change and start taking action. Registrants on the site can access tips, information, and even track their personal reduction in carbon dioxide over the long term. For more information on what you can do after Earth Hour, visit www.thegoodlife.wwf.ca.

Switching off your lights for one hour is just one simple action that you can take to help make a difference; the global darkness will send a powerful message that we care about our planet. Why not make it a monthly, or weekly, event in your house?

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If you teach science this conference is a must. We have been exhibiting at the National Science Teachers Association national conference for many, many years and we always learn something new, from the teachers who visit our booth to other exhibitors and, when we have time, from session presenters.

Our favorite presenter of all time is Nancy Harrison (and not just because she recommends The Digital Frog 2.5). Nancy is a practicing pathologist who loves animals and firmly believes that cutting up dead animals in high school is of little pedagogical value and countless animals die unnecessarily.

Nancy’s love of animals led her to research all the computer-based alternatives on the market. Recognizing that teachers are pressed for time, she felt this would help them make the switch from cutting up dead animals to a computer-based alternative. Initially, Nancy showed the teachers several programs, but eventually honed her presentation to just two programs, which she deemed to be the “best of the best”.

Whenever we can, we attend Nancy’s presentation and listen as Nancy explains to a hushed audience how her high school science teacher influenced her life and her career. And, of course, we love it as she tells the audience why The Digital Frog isthe best of the best. We are very fortunate that Nancy endorses our program (as did eSchool News readers) but we do NOT give her any financial support. In fact, Nancy will not even allow us to buy her a cup of coffee.

Nancy’s presentation at CSTA in Long Beach last year was full to overflowing. This year NSTA is in Boston and Nancy will be presenting “Virtual Dissection: The Best of the Best” on Friday Mar. 28 from 12:30 to 1:30 in the Amphitheater of the Seaport World Trade Center (so you might actually get a seat).

By the way, our booth number is 1337 and we will be holding a draw for an unlimited Building Site License for The Digital Frog 2.5 (list price $899). Stop by our booth, mention the “secret” password – The Year of The Frog – and triple your chances of winning.

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I may be known as the frog lady these days, but there was a time when I could not tell a frog call from a bird call. That all changed when I became involved in Digital Frog International. The biodiversity section of The Digital Frog 2.5 features frogs and toads of North and South America, together with sound recordings of their calls.

Way back in 1995, we gave the first version of The Digital Frog to our vet to review. She reported back that her two year old son spent hours and hours clicking on the frogs and listening to their calls.

A few years ago we donated software to the Toronto Zoo and I spent a day in their conservation area helping visitors navigate our software. The frog calls were extremely popular.

I have also used this section to help children identify the spring peepers, northern leopard frogs, green frogs, wood frogs and tree frogs that can be found on our country property. Last summer my grandchildren were fascinated as they watched a grey tree frog, quickly nicknamed “Norman”, change from grey to green as he emerged from his hiding place. From then on, whenever they heard a tree frog call, they all rushed out looking for Norman.

Of course, I still secretly believe that the herpetologist who provided the recordings we used in the program was playing a joke on us —the bullfrog sounds just like a cow!

To learn more about the frog calls and other information on the frogs and toads of North and South America available in The Digital Frog 2.5, read more about the program’s ecology section. Or preview it for yourself with a free demo of The Digital Frog 2.5.

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As part of the Year of the Frog, the Vancouver Aquarium has produced “Bullfrog Ballet”, a two-minute, high-speed video showing bullfrogs feeding on insects in slow motion, giving them a grace you might not normally associate with large (and seemingly ungainly) bullfrogs.

From the Vancouver Aquarium’s description:

Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) are native to eastern North America, from Canada as far south as Florida, but they’re invading British Columbia, where the Vancouver Aquarium is located. They were introduced here in the early 1900s by people wanting to farm them for their legs.

As you can see, they’ll eat just about anything that will fit into their mouth. They can easily tip the delicate balance of nature in places where they are not naturally found.

Ironically this widely introduced species is disappearing in Ontario, Canada — part of its natural range.

The video is part of a wider exhibit running at the aquarium, “Frogs Forever?”, to raise awareness of the dangers facing the world’s frog populations and what we can do to help.

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As we mentioned in the last entry, 2008 has been declared as the Year of the Frog. And while the year officially kicked off on January 1, with this being a leap year, many zoos and aquariums around the world are using today, February 29, as the day to really start their educational and awareness activities to promote amphibian conservation.

At Digital Frog International, we’ve been supporters of frogs since we started over a decade ago. Our first educational software program was our virtual frog dissection, anatomy and ecology program, The Digital Frog. Since its release, the program has changed and evolved, but the core has always remained the same: to provide a viable alternative to real dissections and to emphasize ecology‚Äîthe study of living frogs‚Äìalongside their dissected counterparts. Even our Digital Field Trip series of programs highlight frogs and toads, among other organisms, to show their place in ecosystems from wetlands to rainforests, and even deserts.

Experts believe that after more than 360 million years on the planet, between one-third and half of the world’s 6000 species of amphibian could become extinct within our lifetimes. Over the years, with The Digital Frog being used in thousands of schools across North America, we have helped save literally tens of thousands of frogs (not to mention thousands of dollars to schools who save on purchasing frogs for dissection).

Be among the first 29 to buy and save 29%

With this being the Year of the Frog, we want to help make it even easier and more affordable to bring the benefits of The Digital Frog 2.5 to your classroom or home. Starting today, February 29, 2008, we’re giving a 29% discount to the first 29 orders for The Digital Frog 2.5. That’s a savings of $24.65 off a home version CD, or more than $260 off the price of a building site license.

Act fast, though. We can’t promise how long this offer will last. (You can order directly from us here.)

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I have always had an interest in the natural world and its inhabitants, but have certainly grown fonder of frogs since coming to work at Digital Frog International.

This year, 2008 has been dedicated as the Year of The Frog not because of the Chinese Zodiac, but because of the dire situation for frogs and amphibians around the world.

After surviving for over 360 million years, frogs and other amphibians are dying the world over. We could lose as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of the known 6,000 species in our lifetime. Loss of habitat is a big threat, but Chytrid Fungi is quickly becoming the greatest threat to frogs and amphibians. A new strain of the fungi was discovered in 1999, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and it is believed this is responsible for the widespread demise or many amphibian species.

I have four children and that is not the legacy I want to leave them. They deserve a healthy world with diverse species in it.
We need to take responsibility for the destruction of habitat; frogs are like the canaries in the coal mine , they are indicators of environmental health. The destruction of this species will be a forerunner for many more to follow.

We can help through agencies like Amphibian Ark who are trying to improve public awareness of the frog’s and amphibian’s dire situation. The global conservation plan is to keep species that will go extinct in captivity until the time comes that they can be secured again in the wild.

I do feel that we are doing something at Digital Frog by offering an alternative to real frog dissection, by doing virtual dissection we are saving frogs.

I am spreading the word among my friends and family about the frog’s troubles and hope you can do the same. We all know how fast things can spread when I tell two friends, they tell two friends etc.
Locally we can help to clean up and maintain healthy ponds and wetlands for our North American frogs.

I have taught my children from a young age that looking after the whole environment, not just our small part is an important responsibility, and one that we all need to take seriously. We have enjoyed some great family times over the years helping with clean-ups in our community. I am sure your community does something similar and if not maybe that is something you and your family would like to take on in this all important Year of the Frog

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