GIANT Microbes

Add a bit of whimsy to your study of viruses and bacteria!  I picked up these Giant Microbes quite a few years ago now.  I think they were pretty new then - they've since increased the collection by quite a bit. 

I went with microbes common to schools (from left to right): common cold, flu, sore throat, and stomach ache.  There are all variety of microbes including those making news in recent years: Swine flu, Bird flu, Mad Cow Disease, Multiple-Resistant Staph, etc.  And there are also some cells (which might be worth adding to my collection): red blood cell, white blood cell, platelet, neuron, brain cell.  You really just need to check out the whole collection...

The microbes come with a small information card, including the name of the actual virus/bacterium/fungi. 

My students get a kick out of them, and they do come in handy when talking about virus/baceteria shapes.

Seriously, go now and take a look! 

Bacteria: When Do You Make Me Sick?

Has this ever happened to you....

You wake up and head to school feeling fine.  By lunch you're starting to feel icky and by the end of school you're sick. 

Under the right circumstances, bacteria can reproduce every 20 minutes. 

Have your students determine how many bacteria will exist after 10 hours, if they begin with just one.  They'll have to do their calculations in their head/on paper, as a calculator will quickly become useless!

Scientists believe that humans can start to feel the effect of harmful bacteria when there are about 2000 bacteria in the body.  How many minutes/hours did it take to reach this number? 



If time permits and you're willing, you could use popcorn kernals to model the number of bacteria (up to a certain point....).  Have your students count out lots of 10 kernals in small cups - it makes it easier to count out 100, etc.