During the first day of the activity, students will focus on the basic characteristics of bacteria: what they look like, where they live, how they move, how they breathe, and how they reproduce. Students should work individually or in pairs. Using the following Web sites, they should answer the accompanying questions in their notebooks.
c. How are bacteria classified? Name the two large classes.
d. Where have bacteria been located? Name as many places as possible.
e. How many bacteria live on Earth? (The third Web site listed above has information on this.)
f. How quickly do bacteria reproduce? Try to show this pattern as a graph or other visual display.
g. What do bacteria eat? How do they take in their food?
Day 2/3
On the second day, divide the class in half. Working again as individuals or in pairs, half of the class will focus on helpful bacteria, and the other half will focus on harmful bacteria. Using the following Web sites, students should answer the accompanying questions in their notebooks.
c. Describe how bacteria can cause food poisoning.
d. Give two examples of bacteria that cause disease. Include their names and how the bacteria spread.
e. How can these diseases be prevented?
Design a presentation that teaches about helpful or harmful bacteria. Each display should include at least one micrograph, a photograph of bacteria taken under a high-powered microscope. Encourage students to organize their displays as creatively as possible. They can include comic strips, diagrams, charts, graphs, or any other device that conveys the information in an interesting way.
1 What was the single most surprising fact you learned about bacteria? 2 How have your ideas about bacteria changed as a result of working on this lesson? 3. You may have read in the newspaper or heard your parents talking about bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. This means that streptococcus or harmful bacteria may not die when a person takes an antibiotic. Based on what you have learned about bacteria, why do you think they can become resistant? 4. What do you think microbiologists, or scientists who study bacteria, look for in their research? 5