The 7-8th graders have been learning about the six kingdoms in science (archaebacteria, eubacteria, protists, fungi, plants, and now today animals). Back when we learned about protists, the 7-8th graders were fascinated by slime molds... they're kind of like a fungi, but now they're classified as a protist. They can move, eat, think (kind of), react to change, 'remember' where they've been... they're pretty neat things. Of course they wanted to get one as a pet. So I looked up how much it cost: $50 for a starter kit ($15 if you already have petri dishes, agar, etc.). I said if they wanted to chip in some money, we could get one! So about half the class brought money in. Mr. E gave me a prepaid card to cover the rest of the cost. Awesome!
It arrived special delivery Wednesday at noon. It had all sorts of fancy labels because it's a live product and considered hazardous (even though it's not dangerous to humans). Even this morning I could tell the active culture slime mold has grown! We also have inactive slime mold (in endospore form aka sclerotia). They wanted to grow their own right away, but first we had to prepare the plates...
Agar had to be melted and poured into petri dishes. I was going to do it after school, but some of the 7-8th graders were super gung ho about it, so I let them do it. I had a portable burner in my room, so I brought that down. They got a glass bowl from the cook and filled it with water (the agar melts in a kind of double boiler thing). It took all class period with them for it to melt, but before I left, they had done about five plates. They had to put the agar back in the water to melt again since it got a little chunky. I left them to their own devices (with the instruction sheet) and only checked on them after school. They turned out great!
There was just a little bit of agar left in the two bottles, so I melted them in the microwave and poured the leftovers in the chunky dish. Now we're all set to rehydrate the sclerotia on Monday! Some of the kids decided they're going to name their slime... Monster, Luna, Nova, and (wait for it)... Mom.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a half a day of school, out at 11:30, but there's a blizzard warning starting tonight, so chances are we'll be learning from home tomorrow. All my kids need to do is say memory work, do their spelling tests, and read for 20 min, so it should be a pretty short day! I might get all my papers corrected or get some reading in! (Or if the weather clears up, leave for Fulda early!)
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