Throughout my internship at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences the goal has been to learn the methods of my postdoc, Dr. Julia Stevens, but also to determine how to scale protocols that are typically performed in a mostly sterile environment to an average classroom. In her lab, Julia uses micropipettes, stirring hot plates, and an autoclave, just to name a few of the pricier items. Those three tools alone would cost thousands of dollars that a public schools would never have. The question was, how do we scale this project to any classroom, anywhere, and still empower students and teachers alike to collect meaningful data regardless of their circumstances.

Not only were we considering price, but also how to scale this to teachers who are rusty in the details of microbiology. The lab methods we are implementing are methods that teachers probably haven’t used since high school or college, and perhaps in most cases, not at all. We had to create a way to communicate to teachers that everyone is capable of doing these methods regardless of their background knowledge or science budget.

To do this we first made various protocols that addressed how to do the project on various budgets and then we created instructional videos that showed us doing the methods. We only featured the three teachers in the videos, in an attempt to be more relatable. During the internship we created a way to sterilize the agar by using a microwave and we also successfully made soil agar. This means that this project can be done in the following ways:

1. Nutrient Agar + Autoclave ($$$$)
2. Nutrient Agar + Microwave ($$)
3. Soil Agar + Autoclave ($$$)
4. Soil Agar + Microwave ($)

We also created instructional videos that address how to collect a sample, how to prepare a sample, and how to dilute and plate a sample. These are procedures that an average teacher would not feel comfortable doing independently, let alone in a classroom of 30 students. By creating these videos we hope to encourage educators to try the methods that we have adjusted to fit the average classroom’s needs.

I am so excited about the methods we have created, but coming from an average school where cookie cutter science has triumphed for decades I am nervous about how this will transfer to an average teacher. In the lab, we have this bottled excitement that we cannot wait to unleash come August and we are so excited to implement the once fancy, now accessible protocols we helped to develop in our classrooms. However, there are potential roadblocks ahead that we have considered when thinking about implementation. What about the veteran teacher who has a “way” of doing things? What about the beginning teacher who is too overwhelmed to even think about doing a lab? What about the department chair who is too frugal? What about administrators who are strict when it comes to the pacing guide? What about parents who do not think this is a meaningful use of their student’s time? What about students who are reluctant to participate? These are all questions we have thought of and it is scary to think that all the effort we have put into successfully scaling may not work. I think most of our knowledge will come from the implementation of this project in our classrooms and then we can adjust the protocols as needed from there. Ideally, the excitement we have for this project, and for authentic science in general, will swell into the hearts of other teachers, from all disciplines, and slowly, but surely we can make the short amount of time we have in the classroom we our students as meaningful as possible.