Clarke Central High School Outreach

On September 27th from 2:30 pm to 3:25 pm, I was at Clarke Central High School to lead/assist a group of students in counting CFUs from their soil samples and calculating and entering their data into an online spreadsheet. We had already practiced counting CFUs in class, which made me feel more confident about leading high schoolers to count CFUs. I had a group of 6 students, so I had three students count one set of samples and three students count the other set. I had them record the data and compare numbers. After, we used the given formulas to calculate the other desired numbers. I believe the activity was intellectually stimulating for the students because it required them to learn something new and apply that new knowledge to calculate CFUs. The activity was relevant to the audience because they were also a biology class learning about bacteria. It was also creative because the students were able to actually interact with the bacteria itself and see it first hand. One discovery I made during the activity was about the students. While in the classroom, I got to experience what every other high school teacher gets to experience during the last class period of the afternoon, which is the struggle of getting high school students to try and accomplish something in the last hour of the school week. It was difficult to keep my group of students motivated, but I found that leading by example and trying to keep things lighthearted and fun was the best way to get them to work. Although the class wasn’t entirely cooperative, it was still enjoyable teaching them something new and watching them learn and have fun in the activity we had been learning about and practicing. Another discovery I made was that partaking in this outreach helped me strengthen my own skills in for calculating CFUs and other information and it also strengthened my abilities of patience and working with teenagers. If I were to repeat this activity again, I don’t think there is anything in particular on my end that I would change. I think most of the problems that occurred were because the class period was at the end of the day on Friday. If I were to repeat this activity, I would select a time that isn’t at the end of the day. I think this activity was pretty effective in showing bacterial antibiotic resistant strains. The activity itself along with the knowledge of antibiotic resistance helps show students how important it is that we address this issue.