s important, how much we use (which is always surprising) ways we harm our water, etc.
For instance, for sound, they had pipes that you could talk into and hear someone else on the other side–what they would “sound like through water”. They also had a model boat that was full of trash to demonstrate visually how much pollution is dumped into our water ways. They allowed you to taste the water the that was made there with the continual emphasis on how the quality is superior quality by the time it leaves the facilities. They had displays that had tactile components–and they even guided us through with a scavenger hunt to find the important information throughout the museum.
I even really enjoyed the “Water Cycle” Lesson that they had us do after going through the museum portion. It was really fun! I also immediatley started thinking about all the different ways I could implment a similar lesson in the future with other concepts that I teach during the year. As I was talking to a group of other teachers at lunch some suggested things like the carbon or nitrogen cycle as other ways a lesson similar to this could be used.
I will certainly try and see if I can schedule field trip for my students to go to this one, especially since we have a Watershed unit in our curriculum toward the end of the year.
A display that showed how much water was consumed doing normal household tasks
A display that showed water borne pathogens in a really interesting way–as wanted posters.
A model boat and the amount of trash that you can find in our bodies of water.
This was part of the lesson plan where we got to pretend we were a water molecule and travel through all the different parts of the water cycle by rolling some die.
Loved it! Even though we were unable to tour their actually treatment side of the facilities due to their expansion and renovations–even the part that we did get to do was truly exceptional!
This week I have been learning how to do mini preps (plasmid purification) independently. The process includes lots of pippetting, centrifuging many buffers that serve different purposes, but in the end help to purify our plasmid product. After the plasmid is purified, the concentration of nucleic acid in the sample is measured using a Nanodrop machine. Once this is completed, the sample is ready to be sent off for sequencing. This sequencing allows us to identify into which sites the plasmid has incorporated our non canonical amino acid (ncAA) mutation. Once those sites are known and isolated, it allows us to plate plasmid containing bacterial colonies with a single site mutation at different temperatures. I must say, I love being in the lab and getting the privilege to play even a small part in this work because its broader implications could be massive, and the work is equally as fascinating as it is challenging.
The first photo below shows an apparatus that is hooked up to a vacuum where wash buffers are used for the plasmid purification. And the second picture shows the Nanodrop machine.
It has been a great week filled with learning and growing as a scientist! Even as a teacher, consider myself a lifelong learner. So, having the opportunity to strengthen my science skills and understanding has been tremendous!
In Dr. Xiao’s lab, We are working a project that is incorporating synthesized non-canonical amino acids (ncAA) (amino acids that are outside of the 20 that occur in nature) to enhance protein thermal stability.
So this week’s activities have included making various solutions, incubating, culturing and plating E.coli cells, sending plasmids samples out for sequencing, analyzing sequences of plasmids to look for incorporation of our mutant ncAA and comparing it to wild type amino acid sequences for the enzyme Beta Lactamase. There’s also many smaller steps in between, and in between each step, I am learning new procedures, calculations and mindsets.
And even though I have been teaching science for years, I had never done something as routine in a lab as using an autoclave. I learned how to operate one this week.
So all around, 