Amazing Microbes Come to Life, by Coming Into View
Help me give my students the experience of seeing their outside ecology projects come to life as they clearly view the microbes (nematodes & tardigrades) that they will learn to extract.
I have the opportunity teach, be with, and learn from, students who have quite a variety of life experiences. I teach two Biology courses: General Biology and a class I developed called "Honors Medical Biology" where I hope too instill in my students an interest in a medical profession. (I am a Flight Paramedic for my other profession.)
The most important thing my Biology students need to learn / do during our time together is not the topics, it's gaining experience with science SKILLS, how science works!
My students are working on their LTER (Long Term Ecological Projects) where they DO a year-long ecology project of their design. They think of a testable question, design a valid experiment, learn about the statistics used to manage the data they collect, and then learn presentation skills as they present to Dr. Byron Adams and his staff at BYU at the end of the year. They receive valuable critique and inspiration from professional scientists to pursue further higher-level education.
These two digital microscopes will be a huge benefit to my students who will be spending hours searching for ecosystem microbes they will be surveying as they complete their LTER projects. Thanks. Kevin
My Project
These two digital microscopes will greatly increase student motivation to search for their soil microbes from the ecosystem they will be studying. Having the digital screen will also help share their results.
Soil extraction involves steps using different science skills such as collecting, weighing, separating, centrifuging, and then, the final rewarding step of counting their microbes under these new digital microscopes.
These microscopes are not just for the classroom. Students will be able to check them out and use them at home, or any other location of their choice. This will be a great motivational tool for younger siblings of my students as they learn about the world of microbiology from their older siblings.
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