ERIC Number: EJ1003686
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-May
Pages: 4
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0002-7685
EISSN: N/A
A Hair & a Fungus: Showing Kids the Size of a Microbe
Richter, Dana L.
American Biology Teacher, v75 n5 p336-339 May 2013
A simple method is presented to show kids the size of a microbe--a fungus hypha--compared to a human hair. Common household items are used to make sterile medium on a stove or hotplate, which is dispensed in the cells of a weekly plastic pill box. Mold fungi can be easily and safely grown on the medium from the classroom environment. A microscope capable of 200-400x is necessary. Students can use a hair from their own head to view a fungus and a hair side-by-side on the same slide. They will see that a microscopic fungus hypha is 20-50x smaller in diameter than a hair. Older students will also learn that microbes are measured in micrometers, that fungi are ubiquitous, and that decay is an inevitable part of Earth's processes.
Descriptors: Biological Sciences, Science Instruction, Biology, Molecular Structure, Science Laboratories, Laboratory Equipment, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A