Presentation to the College Students

As the wet grass crunched beneath our feet we felt excited about the day to come. Today we were going to present our slideshow and game to the students of Davidson College. The doors of Chambers opened with a swish and our footsteps echoed down the empty hallway (all the other classes were in session). Realizing we were early we began to rehearse in the classroom next to the designated area where we were going to present. In a few moments we heard the lively college students filing into Dr. Wesner's classroom. We then took a deep breath and..... walked into the classroom. The college students' attention turned towards us as we began to set up for our presentation. Once everything was set we began. Malia introduced us and then Michaela described the venn diagram we created comparing 8th graders and college students. Then Michaela explained the samples we had taken from different locations along with the help of Jake, Ashley, and Wyatt. Jillian helped work the computer. Then we talked about the Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and recommended it to the college students. After we had taken a few questions, we started playing Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grader? a parody on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Are game was based off our science EOG but we also included a few random pop-culture/Mr. Hoover trivia questions. Then we ate at the Soda Shop (Mr. Hoover's 1st time!!!!) and walked back to school. As we reflected on the day we agreed that it had been a good one!!!

What happened to the samples?

Discovery Place Exhibit: MicroBiology

Last week as I walked into the Math room, I found that we were going to Discovery Place. Last year the 9th graders had visited the Microbiology Exhibit, as as such, I was very exited to go-it had had a lot of positive feedback. A bus trip and a few stairs later, I was walking into Discovery Place. My class toured the place, visiting the Oceanic and Rain-forested exhibits, and as we got to the microbiology exhibit, most of us were wow'd. There was interesting facts all around us and many different places to see all of what Microbiology was-it was REALLY fun! The exhibit was located in a round-about manner, twisting around from the irrelevant facts to the most interesting and fun! We played a microbiology trivia game on a computer se up for us-thanks to Mrs. Smith, we got some good scores!
Here are some facts:
-There are microbes all over our body
-For every one cell in your body there are 10 microbes to accompany it
-There are microbes on your eyelashes that eat the dead skin to stop it from accumulating
-Your nose hairs can protect your body from foreign microbes from getting to your immune system
-Bacteria can be restraint to antibiotics-that's why we have an immune system

As a fun extra, we also saw an I-max movie on the Alps and a person who decided to climb the north face of the Eiger, to avenge his father's death (his dad dies from falling of the Eiger after his rope snapped)

We wretchedly missed Wyatt and Mr. Hoover who were FORCED and were MARCHED to the bus to go on the WORST kayaking trip of the CENTURY.  (HA HA!)

--Michaela Okuda with the help of my teammates--

Week four!

By Wyatt Grennan:
Today in "Let's Make it Small" we began by reading chapter 13 in our book. Then we met a man named Mark, and he observed our practicum. We ate lunch in the art room and then walked to the lab. When we got there we met three college students who explained to us what samples of bacteria we will be taking. We determined that we should plate them on TSA for best results. Then EMB and PEA to determine if they were gram + or -. Then we walked around campus to see where we would be taking the samples. We looked at a compost pile and a creek where we would be taking samples. On the way there we slid all over the wet field hockey field. Jake kept running up the hills screaming "Mario Time"! We also need samples from the ground so we looked there. Then lastly we went to the pond to investigate where our samples would come from there. There were salamanders there that we found. It was really fun and Mr. Hoover said if we reflect hard enough that we get to go to Ben N Jerrys. I can't wait to get started on this project it seems really fun!

Lets get small week 3! by Ashley and Malia

Ashley's reflection:
Today in "Let's Get Small" we read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, ate at the EGG and visited the always wonderful Davidson College :) We got to work with Dr. Wessner who jake said was "In the house!!"! Firstly in practicum we couldn't decide what chapter in the book we were on, so we re-read it anyways. I really understand chapter twelve now. In this chapter William finally built his windmill. After the book time we walked down to eat our breakfast/lunch at the egg, and ironically I ordered eggs! It was a very nippy day and we figured out that skipping in the cold can warm you up! I skipped all the way to Davidson College. In the lab Dr. Wessner taught us about observing bacteria and different strategies to identifying them. One strategy was seeing if they were gram positive or negative after gram staining! It was cool we got to use dyes for the bacteria, as well as fire! We then incubated the bacteria so they would grow a lot! One of the bacteria we plated was a very deluted version of strep throat. We also watched an enhancing video on how we couldn't live without bacteria! Bacteria are awesome, and so was practicum today!

Lets Get Small Week 1

The first day of practicum we read The Boy Harnessed The Wind for the first couple hours. Then, we talked a little about how to behave in public. After that we walked down to the college. When we got to the college we were a little early so we got some free hot chocolate. But, it was determined that it was "poison" hot chocolate and you more hungry. Anyways, when we got into there was some empty room in the back so thats were we sat. Dr Wesner talked about the oil spill and how the methane eating microbes helped by eating the methane that came from the accident. Also, he showed us the formula how they turn methane in to energy. After that we went to the lab. No food and no drinks (including water) was allowed in the lab. We were supposed to watch a video but it wasn't working so we would have to watch it next week. We talked about the methane eating microbes and formulas that were talked about in class. Also, we talked about how they turned the methane to energy and that compared to how we turned energy to food. Then, we walked back and reflected

Mr Hoover'S Group