I am very fortunate that my summer internship directly aligns with standards in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Symbiosis in the Soil looks at the bacteria invasive plants recruit to their root systems. With this, students can analyze a number of things such as soil quality, soil type, soils by region, parts of a plant, parts of a root system, bacteria, bacterial properties, fungi, fungal properties, soil microbes vs. microbes in other places, symbiotic relationships, ecosystems, energy levels, soil stewardship etc. For math, students can practice with measurements and conversions throughout the process of the lab, percentage of coverage on the plates, and statistical analysis of the findings. For ELA, students can discuss the prefixes, suffixes and roots associated with key terms, students can conduct authentic research that they write about, and students can practice researching and citing sources using appropriate copyright laws. For social studies, students can research the history of pseudomonas fluorescens as well as the history of crop rotation in various regions in relationship to stewardship.

In my 8th grade classroom I am going to connect my project to symbiotic relationships in our ecosystems unit and then reconnect it to types of bacterial colonies when we discuss viruses. My students will discuss the benefits of symbiotic relationships and what that means for our environment. Stewardship plays a big role in this project because we are ultimately trying to find regional invasive species that could potentially replenish the bacteria in a fallow field in preparation for the next crop.