This week I'm living under the pulsing neon of the windowless analytical lab(finishing up the Antarctic samples from last winter). Meanwhile I am washing bottles in three acid baths... each soak 1 week, then triple bagging them in ziplocks for Becki and Joel to take with them to Antarctica...these are cleannnnn bottles.
Why no ice this winter? A new endeavour--- I am a National Science Foundation GK-12 fellow (the simple explanation- I make bacterial gardens (above) and bring in dirt for kids to learn science from) I've got two classes from two Columbus Public schools. The kids are amazing--- they largely design their own experiments to study everything from erosion to food webs...
For this weeks activities, my rock loving husband is digging in the basement through his crates of rocks--- searching for trilobites... I am dividing brownie and cake mix into batches for the kids to make their own desert soil and muddy lake bottoms.... found some swedish fish for them to make into little sugary fossils.... a few of them experienced predation at the stake of my mouth...
Its really rewarding to do this work, a nice follow-up to Girls on Ice... and the kids are fun, inquisitive and sweet.
And I love our noxious gardens!!!! It reminds me of the primative begginings of our own planet and the strange brew of microbes living in anoxic conditions....
A little lab work never hurt, just need some more sun--- heading out to get some!
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