BioEyes

I love going to Stanley Clark School. The first and second graders are always so excited about the fish, and have prepared lots of “wonderments”. These are questions that they have written down about the fish, and we get to talk about them together. Some of these questions are correctly answered by other students in the class. Some I may be able to answer, and some we will be able to answer as the week progresses and we get to observe the embryos growing. We talk about how scientists do the same things-they come up with questions that they are interested in, and then go about finding out the answers-sometimes by reading about “it” in a book or on line. They might ask another friend or scientist to see if they know the answer. They may actually “do” an experiment to find out the answer. The joy of learning is palpable in the room, and we have a great time exploring zebrafish together! Here are some hard working first and second graders (along with their teachers) studying the fish.

Who says that the week before Christmas can’t be a good time for students to learn? Mrs. Karban’s 8th graders were very attentive to the zebrafish they worked with the week of December 19-23. They were just beginning to learn about genetics- a perfect time to perform a genetic’s cross between striped (wildtype) zebrafish and albino zebrafish. Friday-the day before Christmas Eve- the students quickly arrived to the classroom passing out the occasional gift to a friend, but then jumped right into grabbing their petri dish of zebrafish embryos, positioned them under their microscopes, and began their observations. I was very impressed!
Mrs. Karban plans on having the students analyze data after Christmas break, displaying the student’s results in a bulletin board. I hope to get a picture of upload the results soon. Here are some pictures.

I recently received a request from a group at Flickr called “zebrafish” asking if I might share this beautiful photo with their Flickr group. I have never received such a request before, but after observing the other 110 photos at the site and seeing the different sources that have also shared (Sive Lab, from Whitehead Institute at Cambridge; Center for Image in Science and Art Project from the University of Lisbon; Dr. Albert Pan for Olympus Bioscapes Photo Contest), I felt very honored to share this photo taken by a student in Mrs. Harkin’s biology class at Mishawaka High School. What an honor! I am letting Mrs. Harkins know that she has a budding professional photographer in her class! Here is the flickr group zebrafish

Original note with picture: The sunlight was shining through the window onto the microscope stage where both albino and wildtype zebrafish embryos were being observed. The students wanted to show me how shiny and reflective they looked with this natural lighting-so cool! One of the students took this picture for me.

I just finished my first week of BioEYES this school year, and participated in 4 8th grade classes with Mrs. Tipton, and one 5th grade class with Mr. Zook. It was great being back with the students, and the excitement of the beginning of the school year was still present. Students were introduced to genetics by performing the experiment of crossing striped zebrafish with albino zebrafish. By the end of the week, they discovered that all of the babies were ………. I can’t give it away just in case some future students find their was to my blog!
Here are some pictures and a video of some of the week’s activities:

pictures

movie

For the past year or more I had been wanting to record via picture and video all of the equipment that gets unpacked and packed back up every week for BioEYES, but I am always under the pressure of being somewhere when I have the equipment and van. This past week I needed to check some of the equipment over before the start of the school year, so I was able to accomplish it.
Here is a picture of the equipment that goes out to the classrooms that participate in BioEYES. We are so grateful to have a van with a lift!

Here is a video walking through the supplies a bit.

Here are scientists perfoming an acid base experiment. They are also teachers from surrounding schools that are participating in the 2011 BioEYES Summer Institute here at Notre Dame. Their science backgrounds are varied, but they all are becoming zebrafish experts, as well as getting a crash course in some modern biological lab techniques such as Polymerase Chain Reactions.

I have finally gotten news that I have been waiting for!! Zebrafish have finally made it to space!! Space Shuttle Endeavour launched its final mission on May 16. Students from around the US submitted experiments that might take this last trip, but only 16 were chosen-one group from Esperanza Middle School, located in Lexington Park, Maryland. Here is their story- http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/06/students-take-part-in-endeavour-journey-62395.html.

I had a wonderful week down south in LakeVille, IN. I was with Mrs. Barden, and her students-one 7th grade class, 4 freshman biology classes, and one honors biology. On day 3 and 4 Mrs. Barden showed some of a DVD titled “Inside the Womb of Multiples“. It was a terrific resource for making connections between human embryology and how it compares with zebrafish embryonic development. The footage was amazing! It showed how siblings fight, kick, and interact within the womb. There were many similarities in the vocabulary as well as the visual stages that were perfect in comparing/contrasting humans and zebrafish. And because it was about humans, the students were naturally curious about what they might have done while still in their mothers. I am purchasing my own copy, and will make it available to teachers if they choose to use it during their BioEYES week. Thanks, Mrs. Barden, for the great idea!

I have the incredible opportunity to observe researchers in action! The two scientists that I work with are Aprell Carr Sparks and Francis Raycroft. They are both zebrafish researchers at the University of Notre Dame. I recently got to hang out with Francis while he was injecting ~ 2 hour old zebrafish. This procedure is at such a small scale that he actually resembled a surgeon performing microscopic surgery-and I guess he was!! He first had to create his own injection needle in order to stick the zebrafish without causing harm, and then to insert a VERY SMALL amount of “stuff” into just the right spot. He did this by heating up a needle to the point where he could actually stretch the glass so that the “neck” became longer thus creating a longer, and skinnier needle.   The slang for the apparatus he used is a “puller”, and that is exactly what it does! Once the needle had been stretched, Francis then had to carefully break off the very end (it had melted together closing off the opening).

Once he had “made” his needle, he was ready to start injecting the embryos. He placed about 30 embryos in a row along the edge of a slide, and then placed them under a microscope. He then began sticking the needle through the “shell” of his zebrafish embryos, and into the yolkball. He had to do it just right or else he might injure the fish or not get the injection in the right place in order for the “stuff” to be carried throughout the body of the growing zebrafish. Here are some great pictures that Francis took:

I am sure that both Francis and Aprell find much of what they do as more commonplace or humdrum, but to me, it is an AMAZING world that I previously only knew about from books, and I just think it is pretty darn cool!

(more later about WHAT he was injecting and why:)

Students were hard at work this past week at New Prairie High School.  Their background knowledge of genetics was quite extensive, so Mr. Gensic thought they should not be given the genotypes of the zebrafish, but have to work backwards from the results of their experiment to determine the genotypes of the parents.  Mr. Gensic has 6 freshmen classes-the first four were happy to observe embryos at the bottoms of some of the mating tanks. The last two, however, were “unlucky in love”, and their acts of Cupid on Valentine’s Day did not pan out!!  They were given embryos from the “MYSTERY VILE” provided by Notre Dame and its Freimann Life Science Center.  What will they see as the week progresses? We will have to wait and see……