It’s been fun teaching the grade 10s again. They are so enthusiastic and engaged, asking interesting questions that make us look things up together and learn more about life on earth (and how our bodies work!).
We’ve been getting familiar with using the microscope to examine microscopic structures. We did an osmosis experiment, looking at how onion and blood cells shrivel up in hypertonic (high salt) solutions and expand in hypotonic (deionized water) solutions. The students also made drawings of prepared slides and learned how to calculate magnification. They are now working on their bacteria growth lab project, where they had to develop their own experiment to test a question of their choice. Some of the questions students are examining include: “What is the dirtiest place on a bus?”, “How does the amount of bacteria in frozen meat change after repeatedly thawing and refreezing?”, “Does the amount of time you spend gaming per week affect the amount of bacteria on your WASD keys?”, “How do different concentrations of oregano oil affect bacteria growth?”, and “Does Canada’s polymer money stay cleaner than America’s cotton-linen money?”. The students are also learning about some of the frustrations of lab work - half of the students’ agar plates did not set and they will be trying again next week!
