[Catalist] That's Dr Pond Scum to you !

[Sharon Bergman]

Leon,

I am also Dr Pond Scum at my school, I supply great pond water, looks murky but the frogs and fish like it. We have also seen Euglena in my pond water.

Cheers Sharon

> On 30 May 2021, at 4:59 pm, Leon Harris <leon at quoll.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Mick, 
> general microscopy in Y8. Euglena are a known size, so field of view calculations work well with them (figure FOV and compare it to known sized object, how closely do they match, at the higher magnifications). 
> They are ok for organelles too - you will get flagella, chlopoplasts, nucleus ,cell membrane and vacuole. For this, I'd recommend a 2% methyl cellulose solution, you could try the pharmacy eye drops. 
> 
> They have quite a bit of relevance to the Y7 classification component - Euglenoids drove the early shift from a plant/animal dichotomy in classification, in that they are green, auto- and heterotrophic, and are motile. 
> 
> Then there is the engagement aspect - cute, zoomy beasties that zip around are very engaging to students. 
> 
> The old Y9 abiotic factors lab with daphnia can be modified quite well with euglena - film the motion with a microscope camera or your phone down the eyepiece and measure how fast they travel at different temperatures (distance from fraction of FOV and time from number of frames). 
> 
> Y11 biol revisits y9, so a more sophisticated experiment on abiotic (temperature, salinity, motion) becomes possible. If you want to throw some sampling methods in there, place some euglena under a coverslip, and measure the distribution of euglena over time in terms of distance from the edge of the coverslip. (Use a grid, because you may not have a haemocytometer). Do that one in dark and you will demonstrate that oxygen is an essential abiotic factor, even for things that photosynthesise, and that their behaviour changes measurably to deal with it. 
> 
> I am not teaching biology these days, but there are plenty of opportunities with euglena. 
> 
> Have fun now ! 
> L. 
>> On 30/05/2021 2:19 pm, Michael Cameron wrote: 
>> Hi Leon, 
>> Wow sounds interesting. I'm a new biology teacher and have no experience growing anything smaller than a tadpole. I live in Albany so it's not practical to meet up. But I'm just curious what are the main educational benefits for using these in upper school biology? 
>> Mick Cameron 
>> 
>> On 30/5/21, 2:06 pm, "Catalist on behalf of Leon Harris" <catalist-bounces at lists.stawa.net on behalf of leon at quoll.com> wrote: 
>> 
>>      Greetings Catalistians, 
>> 
>>      I have cultured up a really great little Euglena gracillis. It is thick, 
>>      matted and green, kind of like Shreks armpits. 
>> 
>>      Does anybody want some? Maybe we can organise a bit of an underground 
>>      railway to deliver. 
>> 
>>      I am working on Daphnia magna at this time, but they aren't ready yet. 
>> 
>> 
>>      Cheers, 
>> 
>>      Leon 
>> 
>>      (Dr Pond Scum) 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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