Science 10/3

In science we continued our work with disseases. We had Monday off so we did not have much time for work this week. We looked at new data on the Truman and Jackson Middle School outbreak. We looked at the symptoms each student had. All of them had to do with food, such as vomiting, stomach aches, and diarrhea. Many students claimed food poisining and that it is worse the next day. That tells me the outbreak sets in slowly. Also, almost all of the students who were sick went to the same restrant and went swimming.

To test all of our data we are having water samples, blood samples, and food samples sent to us. We could use petri dishes to see what bactiria is on each sample. We practiced this by checking a bathroom for bactiria. Take a cotton swab ( steralized) and RUB it GENTLY on a surface. Then quickly Rub that same side inside the petri dish, on one side, in a z pattern. If you then leave it in a warm place upside down for a few days, bactiria will grow. We have not gotten the results of our bathroom test yet though.

On wednesday I don't think me or the rest of the class understood how small viruses are. Mr. Finley gave us this site tat slowly shows how small things are. First there was a needle with a hair on it. Then it zoomed and you d see dust mites on the head of the needle. Then it zoomed more on the needle head to show red blood cells, pollen and yeast. Then more to show E. coli, zoom, and it showed still on the needle a rhinovirus. This opened many questions and taught me many things. I had never known that virused were smaller than rad blood cells, I had thought the were the same size.

In class we discussed what things in the video were Macroscopic, Microscopic, and Sub-Microscopic. We had to firth decide what each word means. Macroscopic is too big for a microscope. We decides the hair was Macroscopic. Sub-Microscopic things are too small for a regulas microscope. Bactiria and viruses are in this catagory. So we had to think of a new way to see the outbreak. That is why we are using the test from paragrah 2. Everything we did this week helps us identafy the outbreak at Truman and Jackson.