Science is Awesome!!!, Class #4, Period 3, January 25th

[the_merriest]

Class was not in the danger shop this week, but back in the regular classroom. However, there were three long tables marked as 'stations' at the front of the room, each with several microscopes waiting.

"Okay," Rikku said. "So, this week, we're doing a really basic intro to biology. If you notice, lots of sciencey things end in l-o-g-y. That's because it means 'study of.' And 'bio' means 'life.' So we're studying life, in biology, or if you wanna get more specific, living creatures, and how your body functions, things like that. There are lots of subtopics in biology -- which shouldn't be a huge surprise, considering how much life there is to study! -- and some of those we'll cover in the coming weeks. This week, we're starting with an overview, and then we're gonna talk about cells."

"Cells are the little basic building blocks of living things. Some really simple things, like bacterias and so on, might just be one cell. More complex creatures have more cells, and more types of cells. The one-celled type of critters are called prokaryotes, and they look like that."

She had drawn a quick diagram on the board, which she gestured to.

"The name prokaryote means they don't have a nucleus. The nucleus is the thinky-brain part of the cell, the one that organizes the higher purpose. Cells with nuclei are called eukaryotes, and they're a lot more complicated. But you can see an example of a plant cell over there."

'There,' in this case, being the other side of the board.

"All living creatures take in energy, for fuel, and process it, and expel waste out again. We do it. You eat, and then you use the bathroom. Cells are where all of that happens. They absorb what they need and filter out what they don't. The membranes sort of work as a gatekeeper; they're permeable to certain things and not others. Cell walls -- which you see in that diagram? -- they filter, too, and they also give structural support. Interestingly enough, cell walls are only found in plants; animal cells only have membranes, with no walls."

Rikku clapped her hands in front of herself. "So what are we doing today? We're looking at cells. At the first station, you're going to peel a little bit of an onion skin off, and stain it with some iodine so it's not so hard to see. Put it on a slide, add a cover slip, and put that baby under the microscope to see what a cell looks like. The second station, you're going to be using animal cells. In fact, you'll be using you cells. Take a toothpick and scrape the inside of your cheek, and look at that. The third station has the slides already prepared, because I filtered out some weird-looking critters from pond water. There will be several marked slides there, with different bacteria for you to check out. Any questions?"

Comments

Sign in - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Examining something like the scientist you are!

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William Murdoch

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[chic-harper.livejournal.com]

Harper Finkle

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank Venture

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet Darling

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[mathletenomore.livejournal.com]

Lindsay Weir

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[heromaniac]

Momoko Akatsutsumi

Re: Sign in - SCI04

[notlikebobby.livejournal.com]

Jack McCallister

During the Lecture - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Take notes, pass notes, poke yourself in the cheek with a toothpick preemptively, whatevs.

Re: During the Lecture - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank's "notes" looked suspiciously like a drawing of a 7-foot-tall glowing amoeba being punched by a man with a curly mullet.

São Paulo. 2003. For real.

Activity - Stations! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Subthreads ahoy!

Activity - Station #1: Onion! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

The first station has an onion. Peel some of its skin off, add iodine for staining, and slap that baby under the microscope. Check out the shiny cell walls! Marvel at the blobby bits! Figure out how to use a microscope!

Feel free to call Rikku over if you have any problems or questions or want to bitch about having to do science.

Re: Activity - Station #1: Onion! - SCI04

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William was, in case you hadn't figured this out, exactly the type of person to get excited by the prospect of looking at things under a microscope.

Look, the refinements to the technology in the last hundred-odd-years was impressive, okay? He was certain you couldn't get this kind of magnification in microscopes available in his own time.

Re: Activity - Station #1: Onion! - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank, unfortunately, was a cartoon character.

Which meant he never got to actually look at the onion, because he was too busy bawling his eyes out as soon as it was peeled.

Re: Activity - Station #1: Onion! - SCI04

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Ooh, an onion and a microscope. Juliet knew what both of these things were.

She was going to linger at this station.

Activity - Station #2: Your Own Cells! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Jab yourself in the cheek with a toothpick, add some iodine, and examine cells that were part of you two seconds ago but aren't now!

Please do not jab other students with the toothpicks, build a toothpick fortress, or accidentally jam the toothpicks into your own eyes. (Rikku is looking at you, here, Hank.)

Again, for questions, comments, or concerns, flag down the badly dressed Al Bhed.

Re: Activity - Station #2: Your Own Cells! - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank resented that! He wasn't about to jam the toothpicks in ANYONE'S eyes! (Because he knew from experience that it hurt like the dickens!)

What he DID do was exactly what he was supposed to. And then he waved to the rest of the room. "Hey, look everybody!!! I'M SCIENCE!!!"

Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

There are lots of labeled slides here, with names like Paramecium and Euglena and Arcella. Look at at least two or three of them. Vow to never drink pond water again.

Again, if you need Rikku, she's all yours.

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

Hank peered at them thoughtfully. "So, what protections do we have against these things mutating?" he asked Rikku. Because, really, any time you got something like that under a microscope they grew extra-large or multiplied all over into a sucking green ooze or started infecting people or something like that. It was practically a law.

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

"They're amoeba," Rikku said lightly. "They're not going to turn into giant monsters. And if they do, I'll handle it, okay?"

She was not afraid of amoeba-monsters. They couldn't be worse than sand worms.

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

"They're amoeba," Rikku said lightly. "They're not going to turn into giant monsters. And if they do, I'll handle it, okay?"

She was not afraid of amoeba-monsters. They couldn't be worse than sand worms.

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"Pffft, I know what they are," Hank told her. "And they totally turn into monsters all the time! Whenever there's, like, radiation or something. I've seen it a million times!"

He cocked his head and peered at her. "Wait, you'll handle it? You ARE a superhero! I totally called that!!!"

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

"You did?" Sorry, Rikku was giggling. In a friendly manner! Not like she was laughing at Hank! Mostly! "When? I don't remember you saying it. What makes you think I'm a superhero?"

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"What do you mean, what makes me think it?" Hank asked. "You're TOTALLY dressed like one. Like a real one, too, and not a comic book type one." He gave her a sly look. "No one has THAT bad of a fashion sense, except on purpose. Totally called it."

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Excuse Rikku while she got huffy, please.

"There's nothing wrong with how I dress!" she said. "I like bright colors. All my people dress like this. The rest of you are just boring, that's all."

Though she had a slight weakness for sloppily-worn black suits. Shhh, don't tell!

Re: Activity - Station #3: Pond Water Critters! - SCI04

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

"Riiiight," Hank said. "Secret identity. I gotcha."

Talk to the TA - SCI04

[the_merriest]

If he's here, bug him! So long as that doesn't involve attacking him with those toothpicks.

Re: Talk to the TA - SCI04

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

...Yes, please to be avoiding attacking William with toothpicks. He'd appreciate it.

Talk to Rikku - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Again with no toothpick assaults. Not that Rikku can't defend herself against toothpicks. It's the principle, okay?

OOC - SCI04

[the_merriest]

Images found at New World Encyclopedia and Wayne's Word respectively. I reuploaded them to my photobucket so as not to leech bandwidth. And the Microbus page helped me figure out WTF to find in the pond water.

I'm underslept, so I apologize in advance if class made no sense.

Non sequitor of the day: today is my mom's 60th birthday.