Mighty Microbes

We're surrounded! Itty bitty creations float, eat, reproduce and even burp all around us. They are easy to forget, till someone gets sick, and truly fascinating to see, and so we introduced IBAP and MBAP to a world beyond the obvious; the world of microbes.



We began our journey sometime ago before their Arabic classes began and resumed it after the classes came to an end.

 The journey began with a the book Mighty Microbes, which helped identify some nasty germs, how our body fights them, as well as others in our environment like algae and those microbes we use for food and oil.



The children made some posters about what they learnt.

 

 

   

On reading about yeast and fungi which help make food, we watched videos about making bread, cheese (how its made videos on youtube) and farming mushrooms for sale (not very appetizing!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvnR55mbIgk

We observed yeast at work by making bread, Masha'Allah.

Later we travelled with a Magic School Bus book for a closer look at microbes at work and followed it with videos of The Magic School Bus going into a child's body to watch the immune system at work and another video about plankton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhTHLpXbgcg   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhTHLpXbgcg (keep a steady hand on the volume control for muting music)

Watching the movie Osmosis Jones gave the children a grand tour of the inner workings of a man's body and the consequences of ignoring basic hygiene. the story was fictitious and as movie progressed the fictitious parts were explained and discussed.

We have begun to delve further and look at the world through a single lens - a microscope lens that is, and we hope the children will understand that in most things in life there is more than meets the eye, Insha'Allah.