Genoveva Esteban
Blepharisma , Haematococcus ) and numbers (diatoms, flagellates, Euglena or any other rich protist culture). We hear people’s excited murmurs and answer their big-eyed questions. The questions keep coming non-stop throughout the activity; they mostly relate to microbes, global warming, climate change, origin of life on Earth, food chain, pollution, other life in the universe, and the relevance of microbes in their daily lives and even our own research. Whilst some have rather fewer complex answers…
darting across the field of view, prompts a response that is fun to experience. “Wow!” or “gross!” is the verbal reaction from toddlers to nonagenarians and beyond when looking for the first time down a microscope. Invariably, we hear “wow!” far more than “gross!” and other enthralled noises from the person glued to the eyepiece, inciting the waiting queue to become even more fidgety in expectation. To help them successfully complete the challenge, our activities are all interactive; children and their families handle the harmless protists, the microscope and the slides, and the identification diagrams depicting protists by shape ( Asterionella , Toxarium , Closterium) , colour ( Euglena ,
“What is that?”
“It’s an air bubble!”
82 Microbiology Today October 2022 | microbiologysociety.org
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