Protozoa, bacteria, and algae at ~400x magnification

The last group of students from Leal just left the bus and Ric and I starting to pack up. Over the last two days, 18 of 19 of the Leal classrooms came through for a total of more than 400 students. All sorts of exciting single and multi-cellular life forms showed themselves to us under the microscope, and we had a great time watching bacteria, protozoa and even some small animals swim,  crawl and wriggle by. We learned that everything alive is made of cells and that bacteria are the smallest cells. Also, one of the fourth grade classes from yesterday came back through today for a look at fluorescent cytoskeletons and DNA on our fluorescence microscope.

Ric and I also got a chance to practice our spanish with some of the spanish language classes while looking at  ”las cellulas del rio.” I still forget to roll my ‘r’ sometime, and Ric is definitely a better speaker than me! ‘El rio’ in question was The Boneyard, a creek (OK, not quite a river) that runs through the center of Urbana, only a few blocks from the school. I am very grateful to Yvonne and Spencer for all of their organizing work, as well as all the PTA and teachers for raising money for the visit. 

Microscope Lab setup at Leal