Science Class Ideas?

I need to stop by this weekend, I have a bunch of stuff to donate you can decide what you want for Science committee.

Okay thanks, I should be around for a while on Sunday, and quite a bit throughout the week.

Glow in the dark fish.

That makes me think we could also do the plasmid method of making bacteria glow in the darkā€¦ less concern on what to do with the fish afterward :stuck_out_tongue:

The bacteria might be possible for a class, I donā€™t know enough about it currently. Fish seem more like a project. Though I currently donā€™t have fish I have a real soft spot for them, especially guppies. Though those are live bearers I imagine the glow fish are more of an egg thing. Probably easier with external eggs. Iā€™ve got enough on my plate currently though, Iā€™m not worried about projects right now. Way too much to look into.

N if we have the equipment and I think we do what about doing some things that are basically kind of a two-part class where we take swabs of various places around Makerspace like the bathrooms maybe two or three places in the galley our purses are cell phones and then culture them and then come back and look at whatā€™s going on the culture play? I think that can be a really interesting and eye-opening one let somebody sneeze on a petri dish. I might get us all washing our hands and things a lot more.

This would not be a class for sure not one that would pay an honorarium but if anyone is interested in learning some more about the geology of the DFW area I will take the time to work up one or two talks on it. This area is very interesting geologically. I was going to do this earlier and then I discovered that it seems like weā€™ve learned more since I took triology many moons ag

Another one kind of long the same lines as the first suggestion would be is trying some testing of food left out in room temperature just see what type of bacterial counts you get. Some of these are probably more to part classes. I I have a project I want to try on doing bacterial counts on meat pies cook the way they did back in medieval times. I have an idea that the way they cook them provided a aseptic Packaging and that they may have been bacteria free for several days or a week or more and I would like to explore that idea. I think the more we can learn about things like that the more we can appreciate our refrigerators and freezers and modern food preservation techniques. From my work on debunking bad science I hear an awful lot of people who bemoan all we ought to do everything like they used to do it. Not a good idea.

Holography is easy to teach, but takes a little discipline to execute. The base class is 1 full hour, and we make about 3-4 holograms of objects that the students bring. There is just enough theory at the start to make the students sleepy, then we do some set-up and start hologramming for the last 45 minutes.

I leave an object (usually made of steel) in the frame, then project the hologram back onto it. When we press the object down, you can actually see stress lines forming on it. Itā€™s quite unexpected. This is holographic non-destructive testing. It has many applications in industry and Science.

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Iā€™d be interested in taking it myself if you taught it. :blush:

I used to do holography when younger and did some similar things. If you get a class together Iā€™d love to leave a hand.

The method/approach is to open the cell membrane, lyase the nuclear membrane and protein scaffolding, and clump the soon unraveled chromosomes via positively charged solution. We can look into making insulin; or using vectors with specific plasmids to perform gene knockins or outs (recombinant genetics)ā€¦might be expensive. Mycelium experiments are pretty cheap. I ordered a bunch of Indian Sandalwood seedsā€¦a full grown tree sells for 20k in todayā€™s market. You can use some for a fund raiser if needed. What field of science is the project moving toward?

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Depends on how expensive for the insulin or CRISPR. I think CRISPR isnā€™t too bad cost wise for bacteria or plants.

Not really sure the sandalwood is really practical for fundraising, thatā€™s more of a 15 year commitment I think.

Not really sure which project you are referring to in your last sentence.

Do you have a PCR machine? Weā€™ll need reagents and buffers if you go that route. Field as in division of scienceā€¦physics, chemistry, ectā€¦

Electroplating might be useful/interesting.

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We have Cu and Ni electroplating. Anodizing is another possibility.

We also have a new large volume Vacuum Chamber (thanks, Dr. Ratcliff). In it we can vaporize metals and oxides onto things which wonā€™t take electroplating, by sputtering them; glass, plastics, even ceramics.

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We do have a PCR device.

we have several PCR machines, gel boxes, incubators, etc.

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I would be interested in classes on these subjects!

Yes. Please. Anodizing (dyeing) aluminum.

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If anyone feels like teaching any of these, let me know and Iā€™d be happy to walk with you through a test run.

Iā€™m currently waiting on a mushroom test run to finish and @MichaelAfghani and I walked through a Wintergreen oil test run a couple days ago. I believe he is considering teaching that. I have a few other ideas Iā€™m working on too, but there is only one of me, so I appreciate any help.

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I donated my fatherā€™s electroplating machine to jewelry. They gave it away to one of their members. They didnā€™t want it.

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