Slimy Desks

There's mold in the 7-8th graders desks. Don't worry; it's there on purpose. Since we've been learning about protists, we're doing an experiment trying to rehydrate and grow slime mold. To give you a better picture in your head, each student has a petri dish with agar at the bottom (a very pale beige layer of nutrient-rich solid gel stuff), a tiny piece of paper with hibernating slime mold, and a bunch of oat flakes. The petri dish and lid are in a zip lock bag stored in a dark place. 

I did this project two years ago with the 7-8th graders. I had purchased a slime mold growing kit from Carolina Science Supply and had kept the extras. A few students back then had huge success growing their slime mold, so when they dried out, I kept the best one. It's in a plastic bag labeled "Helga". 

We're trying to rehydrate some from the lab supply company and some from a revived Helga. Helga is growing the best. I heard a report that some little webs are forming now. Most of the other students only have little yellow spots on their petri dishes. Although, some mold is forming... A nice specimen of thread-like fungus is appearing complete with black sporangia on the tops. 

There's still some of Helga left in hibernation mode and in the original ziplock bag. The student who grew Helga does one of the days of afterschool care, so I showed it to her today after school. She lit up. "Oh yeah! I remember Helga! Oh my goodness I can't believe it!" She was tickled someone was regrowing her old experiment. 

Don't you just love science?