Wow – What an awesome start to our research at the Museum of Natural Sciences!
Day 1 in Raleigh
Below is the most awesome team of both teachers and scientists!
I am so blessed to be a part of this group.
#WeRSoil #studentsdiscover @LiannaGohmann
We are making goals for our Fellowship and Internship with Students Discover.
Team Soil – Melissa, Grace, Me, and Doc hanging out above us!
This was an intro into Citizen Science and Students Discover.
When looking around the off-site location of the Museum of Natural Sciences, we found tons of cool DEAD things!
MANY DEAD FISH hanging on the wall – Me and Monica
Who has the bigger mouth? The bass or the teacher?
Check out this mouth!
Me and Doc Julia Stevens!
Snake eggs! Some of the eggs are broken. Can you see the baby snakes?
Dead Blue Viper
We also went on a hunt for dragonflies. Who doesn’t like catching bugs?
On the Hunt!
Some of us were better or luckier at catching the dragonflies, but we all had a great time.
We ventured to the Museum of Natural Sciences and checked out the really cool labs that actual scientists work in (starting below). 🙂
Paleo Lab
The Dino Lab (above) was sooooo cool. I wish I could show the world what we saw on June 27, 2016.
Scientist have a sense of humor. Can you see it?
Everyone just loves looking at frozen bugs! Don’t you?
I learned about PLANTHOPPERS! They are bugs that have been around for a very long time, and…they are still alive! They look way cool!
These bugs are stored at a really cold temperature in ethanol; so that their DNA is preserved for years to come.
Frozen Bugs!
Planthoppers are stored at -80 degrees Celsius and in alcohol.
Day 1 of Week 2 Kenan – Day 1 in Raleigh with Maggie!
Day 2 in Raleigh
This was a fun lesson in micro liters.
We all have questions.
Teaming with bacteria.
These two are hardworking teachers looking for and categorizing bacteria.
Finding glowing bacteria! What fun florescence! We were looking for a specific type of bacteria that “glows” when UV light is applied.
Who knew that all adults have face mites?
We are practicing our pipetting skills!
We ended the day talking about DNA sequencing and how it has changed so fast both in process and in price!
It was a great day in the lab! We love to get are hands dirty, metaphorically speaking. We were actually very CLEAN, when playing/working with the soil.
Day 3 In Raleigh – The best day so far!
We had an amazing day learning how to make nutrient rich plates with Agar.
We worked on our pipetting and diluting skills! Team Soil even plated bacteria from both the rhizosphere of the plants and the endophytes!
Measuring out ingredients for the media. We will be plating bacteria later.
We are measuring media with an awesome tool.
Doc is showing me gel electrophoresis.
The three musketeers are plating bacteria! We are working on real scientific research for Green Roofs!
We learned about how PCR (check out the virtual lab) makes the MiSeq possible. These tubes represent the progression of how a single strand of DNA can be copied 1 billion times with 30 cycles within 2.5 hours.
Our doc was showing us how she has to use her science notebook to assist her in making sure she completes her projects accurately.
She reminded us how important it is to never rip out a page from your science notebook!
Talking about CODAP.
Check out CODAP! It is an amazing site that has REAL data collected by both citizens and scientists. It is a tool that teachers can utilize in their classrooms when they need current scientific data, graphs, maps, and more. We spent part of the afternoon collaborating with the Museum of Natural Sciences Citizen Science Team discussing how to make CODAP more user friendly, and how we can adjust it to benefit teachers in the classroom.
Day 4 – OMG…I love electrophoresis!!!
Look at OUR electrophoresis gel!!! We made this!!!
We had an amazing day. We spent time making PCR; that we then used in our ELECTROPHORESIS.
These hard working women are beginning our first Mastermix!
I was quality control. I was making sure we were listing everything off, and I had to be sure that all of our ingredients were in order.
We used the centrifuge multiple times to move and mix all of our Mastermix.
I was in charge of checking off the MASTER LIST for the Mastermix. We all have our parts to play, and they are all important. Science journals are VERY important! Don’t you forget it!
We took our lunch break in the museum. We spent most of our time in the Butterfly Exhibit!
Even teachers need to let loose and have a little fun. I’m not sure what Grace was thinking, but I was pretending to be an alien from Ender’s Game!
In the exhibit there are other living animals like turtles and sloths; however, we questioned whether or not the sloth was actually alive. Silly thing doesn’t move!
Check out this turtle.
He is one of the fastest turtles I have ever seen. He is much faster than the sloth (for sure)!
This was the biggest butterfly I saw in the Butterfly Exhibit! There were many butterflies zooming around, but I couldn’t catch them all on camera!
So, Grace and I tried to pose with the butterflies, but they kept moving.
Coffee in the cafe. I was having a little bit of a rough time with our lesson planning, but this amazing barista made a beautiful cup of coffee for me! I love COFFEE!
Not everything you try always works out; so, before we left we had to start our experiment again by making more PCR.
We were making gel for the electrophoresis.
Look at this TEAMWORK!
We are placing the DNA genome and PCR into our electrophoresis gel.
I am mixing my PCR solution with the dye before placing it into our Gel.
This is a delicate technique! Or maybe I’m just a little scared of my tiny drop of solution. You almost need glasses to see it!
Whoa! This was a BIG day!
Both teachers and scientists work better during PD with a little Greek Food.
I hope everyone else in the land of education and science had a good day too!
Day 5 in Raleigh
The electrophoresis is happening when you can see the little bubbles rising. It means that the electrical current is passing through the TAE.
We made these Agar medias to pour into plates to feed our bacteria. The agar looks like pee, but it smells like chicken broth (just in case you were wondering).
We were looking for the dye to mix with our PCR. This way we can see the bacteria baby daddy!
Grace is carefully filling the well with our DNA sample next to our ladder sample. You only put one microliter of ladder and only four microliters of DNA/dye.
Melissa is getting ready to start the Gel Electrophoresis Machine. Closing the circuit and starting the current.
Getting ready for a tour of the collections in the basement of the museum.
My husband loves to hunt turkeys. I’m sorry he missed this.
I had to pose with the real Dino bones. I just couldn’t help it.
This Dino head is related to the duck bill Dinos.
Who likes fossilized crabs?
I can’t believe that they have a sample of a dinosaur footprint.
Dino bones brought back from Salt Lake.
Bird on a stick!
Sounds like the MN State Fair.
Stuffed birds. It doesn’t smell very good when the cabinet is opened.
We have catbirds in my yard!
So in the collections, there are whale parts. This part of a whales mouth (teeth-ish) made me think of Marlin and Dory…Oh Look Krill!
This was a great ending to our first week in Raleigh.
There are so many new and old items hiding in the basement of the museum.
I can’t believe all the things I would have never had the opportunity to do without Kenan!