Here are our last few actors playing their parts!
The Environmental Specialist (P.H. Meter):
Captain Polyp, a citizen concerned about coral bleaching:
The player’s friend who will pop up if they need help:
A few weeks ago we started learning about the home-ome, the office-ome and the subway-ome (among others). These “omes” are created when microbiologists collect and document microbes found in a certain place.
SO…we decided to start a museum-ome! Last week, a group went all around the museum, to pre-decided and on-the-spot spots and swabbed.
This week, we got to take a look at what had grown on the plates… and there was quite a bit…especially on the plate swabbed from…the water fountain…bleck!
Only a small percentage of the microbes that were collected can be seen on the plates. We learned about other ways that microbiologists find out what microbes might have been collected: DNA extraction, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and DNA Sequencing. Check out this game and see how many DNA matches you can make. One student claimed they got 155! So good luck to you… Here are some helpful simulations on PCR and Gel Electrophoresis if you want to get a handle on this material. Or you could just get all your information from watching this PCR song. Enjoy!
This week our Extra Learning Activity is this cool illustration. Enlarge the illustration to see a few of the microbes that were found in the NYC subway system and where they were found!
