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.

Travis Thurber – Photo Reflection

In this picture, I see some lively green plants resting near a seemingly still body of water. in the center, there is a half exposed tire buried beneath the dirt. The area is mostly shaded but some rays of light make it through the tree leaves above.

What I notice in this picture is the main reason why I took it, which is the tire in the ground. If the tire weren’t there, everything else looks like healthy wildlife.

This picture makes me think about the pollution in our environment. The tire is already half buried in the dirt and has sticks accumulating in the center, which leads me to believe that it has been there for a while. I saw it in the ground, and while fully knowing it shouldn’t be there, I still didn’t do anything about it. This made me think about how many people see this item in particular and other pollutants and don’t do anything about them even though they know the pollutants shouldn’t be there. I also wonder how the tire got there and whether it was intentionally left there or not. I think most people would interpret this at first as just someone leaving a tire in the ground and forgetting about it, but after thinking about it more it goes much deeper than that and relates to all the pollution that people forget about or ignore.

When I look at this picture, I feel demoralized. I don’t feel that way just because I was actually there and didn’t dispose of the tire properly, but I feel demoralized because of how often this type of littering/pollution occurs. Throughout the rest of the scavenger hunt I found a lot of trash that needed to be picked up. That trash could be there so long that it becomes buried just like the tire.

I think this picture is a symbol for human interaction with the environment. This shows what happens to pretty areas of nature when mankind gets involved and doesn’t care about the consequences of their actions. Not everyone has to be a hero, we just need everyone to not be a villain when it comes to pollution and littering.

Travis Introduction

In high school, I took biology freshman year, chemistry sophomore year, physics junior year, and computer science senior year. I have always been more interested in the technology based sciences. Since my major is computer science, I get to take a lot of courses about software and hardware development/engineering.

It has been quite a long time since I have studied biology, so I am excited to see what I remember and also learn more about what I don’t know. I am mostly looking forward to learning about not just the specific processes and definitions that make up biology, but also how it applies to our day to day lives.

I believe that the outreach with Clarke Central High School students project is the most interesting and beneficial project. Every student will be able to collect their own samples and test them, which gives everyone their own results and sense of involvement in the project. I haven’t had any experience with a project like this, but it seems like an exciting opportunity. I think other students would enjoy this too because it is dealing with harmful bacteria that can end up affecting the entire world.

The harmful bacteria we would research in the outreach with Clarke Central High School is an issue that I haven’t heard of until today. This is something that I am sure a lot of others don’t know about that we can raise awareness for. We could learn if there is anything we could do to help or if there are things that other companies can change to prevent these bacteria from forming and spreading.

I want to learn more about the environmental effects of human actions. I want to know more about how human actions with the environment has harmed or changed the climate on earth.