Triple Helix

A lot of these students are woefully under prepared for a lot of the material they are trying to learn in the classroom. Many students are disinterested and others lack basic reading proficiencies required to preform at the level they are currently at. However, what I have gained is that if the students are properly introduced and immersed in a certain subject area, they typically tend to respond positively. For example, one of my first, and least successful, presentations to the students was one on my own personal research. The presentation was far too wordy and complex and resulted in most of the students having completely dazed looks on their faces. Subsequently, I approached presentations far differently; the presentations were mostly pictures (the most interesting looking ones I could find) elaborated on by me. Additionally, I would try to ask the students a series of questions during the presentation, not only to form a baseline of knowledge that the students had in the subject, but also to involve the students as much as possible in the work. Talking at the students does not work at all, but trying to actively involve them in veiled scientific dialogue works slightly better.

One of the most successful activities that we were able to bring from the laboratory into the middle school class room was a lesson plan and activity on bacterial cultures using agar plates. Agar plates are nutrient rich gelatins that, under sterile conditions, allow for the formation of small, bacterial cultures that are useful in helping scientists isolate bacteria of interest. However, in the classroom, our experiment was anything but sterile. Instead, the students were encouraged to touch the plates, both before washing their hands, after washing their hands, and after cleaning their hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizers. The students also took samples from different areas of the room, such as door knobs, pencil sharpeners, and desk spaces, to test the cleanliness, or lack thereof, of each area.

The agar plates were returned to the laboratory and incubated for two days. The plates were returned to the students thereafter, where the students were able to compare bacterial growth after different degrees of washing, as well as the plates with samples from different areas of the room.

How did the kids react to it?

The kids absolutely loved this activity. Perhaps they didn’t fully understand the complete background of bacterial growth on nutrient rich gels, but they certainly understood the importance of sanitation, as well as how dirty some common areas of the world can be.