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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.
University of California Press. 2000 Center Street Suite 303, Berkeley, CA 94704. Tel: 510-643-7154; Fax: 510-642-9917; e-mail: customerservice@ucpressjournals.com; Web site: http://www.ucpressjournals.com/journal.php?j=abt
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