Outreach: Light at the bottom of the sea

Recipient of the Education and Outreach Grant, Society member Dr Jenny Search shares her work on engaging primary school children using bacterial luminescence.

I have worked in the field of science communication for over 10 years now and spend most of my time working with school children, promoting all the science, technology, engineering and research (STEM) subjects and encouraging youngsters to think of themselves as potential scientists and engineers of the future. It is always exciting when I get to do something linked to immunology and microbiology – the topics of my own undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

Sadly, there is little microbiology in the current English national curriculum at primary school level. I was approached by Denise Armstrong from Vane Road Primary School in County Durham, as she wanted to run a microbiology event in school but, like many primary schools, they couldn’t afford the time to run activities not directly linked to the national curriculum. Denise also wanted the children to develop something that could be used as part of the school’s activities for their Lumiere festival. We came up with the topic of ‘Light at the bottom of the sea’ where we linked bacterial luminescence with the circuit-making requirements of the national curriculum.

I developed a workshop to introduce the children (aged 10–11) to bacteria, symbiosis and light production, particularly bioluminescence under the sea. The children then used craft materials and electrical components to create a model anglerfish with a light that can be turned on and off with a basic switch. As the light in the anglerfish lure is provided by bioluminescent bacteria, this provides a good link to exploring the marine microbial environment.

The children investigated several marine creatures that have light-producing symbiotic bacteria. They were quite taken with the wide range of strange, glowing creatures that live under the sea. They came up with their own ideas for creating light-up creatures that could be used as their part of the school’s annual Lumiere festival. They worked with an artist to create larger model anglerfish and other bioluminescent sea creatures and then I helped them add circuits and glow-sticks to their models so they lit up.

As well as producing a fantastic display of light at the bottom of the sea, the children found out a lot more about general microbiology, the scale of micro-organisms and the wide range of environments in which they live. Evaluation showed the workshop countered some common misconceptions, such as viruses and bacteria being the same, and bacteria being only known as causing disease. The children found making the light-up anglerfish tricky and they needed perseverance to get it to work; however, most of the children stated this was their favourite part of the workshop. They also enjoyed finding out about marine life and building circuits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JENNY SEARCH

http://drresearch.co.uk
@DocReSearch

The next deadline for the Education and Outreach Grant is 1 October. For more information, please see our Grants pages or contact [email protected]