Final year (P7) primary school pupils from Forthill Primary and Dens Road Primary participated in Magnificent Microbes. Participating classes received a full week’s worth of fun and hands-on science activities centred around the world of microbes, complete with a box full of materials and lots of chances to interact with our scientists through video and text chats.
An overview of the week’s activities is as follows:
Magnificent Microbes week began with a video introducing some of our microbiologists at various stages of their careers, from undergraduate to professor and in between! They shared facts about microbes as well as information about their research, and then challenged pupils to explore the world of microbes using the resources provided. Classes were invited to begin creating their own special microbes using crafting supplies and write a class poem about the science they learned.
Tuesday introduced pupils to microbe record breakers – microbes hardy enough to live in deep sea vents, arctic caves, and even outer space! Scientists ran a video quiz for classes to help them learn all about these amazing adaptations.
On Wednesday pupils learned about bacterial warfare and cooperation. Starting with a fun animation that explains how microbes fight and cooperate within their environment, the lesson challenged the pupils to become microbes themselves and to talk to the other pupils to find out their perfect pair through our cooperation game. They also worked on their microbe creations, adding in details about how they interact with other microbes, whether friendly or not
On Thursday the lessons covered the interactions between microbes and plants, which are more complex than you might expect! Pupils had a chance to look through microscopes at a variety of bacterial samples as well as playing a ‘happy microbe families’ game to build a healthy microbiome.
Friday started with activities around Antimicrobial Resistance, or AMR, a big problem facing scientists and doctors today. Pupils learned about antibiotics – their history, where they come from, and how they work – before finding out about how bacteria have evolved to fight back against them. The classes had the chance to make microbial prints on real agar plates that were collected and incubated back at our labs.
At the end of the week we held an interactive Q&A video chat for all classes so they could speak to our scientists and ask them about Magnificent Microbes! It was a very lively session full of lots of interesting questions and answers.
| Period | 25 Apr 2022 → 6 May 2022 |
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| Degree of Recognition | Local |
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