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--