Designed by John Herrmann and Scott Worland
To be typed in Palatino font, size 2 with a good laser printer (and taped to a slide):
“Congratulations and welcome to Bug Juice Challenge. Please open the atlas to page 98 for further instruction.”
Inside the atlas (used to reinforce change in perspective) is the following message with handout:
With the help of this handy microscope, you will determine which bottle contains the real bug juice and which contains water that is safe for consumption. Based on your results, you must drink from the bottle that you determine to be safe for consumption.
To help you decide, we have prepared a slide with a drop of water from each bottle. Please complete the small form and place it into the box once you have made your decision.
* Handout should accompany this description as Bugjuice Worksheet.
Notes to the educator:
- Make sure containers of juice are non-transparent so that others will not necessarily follow the actions of others.
- This activity is about perceived risk, not actual risk. DO NOT USE ACTUAL POND WATER! The last thing you want is a student with Giardia! There is no way that a student can tell if you have or haven’t used real water so use the good stuff for both!
- A plankton tow net is a helpful way to capture large quantities of microbes for the sample.
- It may be necessary to refresh slides in case a student has removed a cover slip or somehow defaced the slide.
- Unplugging the scope, removing the eyepiece, half-twisting the lenses and moving the stage are a few ways to make the exercise more challenging.
- If you find that the slide is legible without the microcope, you can tint it with a marker so that only with illumination can someone make out the darker letters.
- Good Luck!
