BioTech Lesson Plans

BioTech Lesson Plans

Say Hello to my Leetle Friend

Welcome to Week One Morning Camp and the BioTech Lesson Plan page. Each day is laid out below with links to lessons, activities, and design challenges. If you are looking for a list of all lessons, click here.

Day One:

Health and Wellness -

Introduction to Mezzacello with a tour of systems and maps.

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1. LESSON: Team Setups, Team Basics, and Leadership
2. ACTIVITY: Vital Signs and Ecosystems
   • A challenge to discuss what healthy ecosystems are and identify three examples of areas that could be improved.
3. Design Challenge: Bodies, Food, Waste, and Water
   • A challenge to build a stomach from a 2-Liter bottle with a mild acid, potato flakes, and jello. the point is studying mechanical digestion, and water extraction as well as wastes.

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1. LESSON: Layers of Reality - a fun way to introduce the STEM in ag by creating a model for the way the world works through art and lecture. Using nesting dolls we travel through the levels of the ecosystem, down to the Planck Length and Energy.
2. ACTIVITY: Decorate Dolls or create drawings of Doll cut outs to nest atop each other.
3. Design Challenge: The Large and the Small [Link]
   • A challenge to draw the largest thing we know about and the smallest as well. Then compare the two side by side.

Day Two:

Individuals and Flocks -

Vet Tech -

Introduction to Animals and Animal Safety as well as mobile data and power stations of Mezzacello and Learn How to Follow Procedures

Microscopy -

1. LESSON: The Limits of Light and the Physics of the supersmall
2. ACTIVITY: Learn to create a test slide.
3. ACTIVITY: Set Up a Lab
   • Each Team will be provided a lab table, power brick, walkie talkie, supplies, and either a microscope, chemistry sampling kit, or data lab. The challenge is to work together to safely assemble and prep the lab per the instructions in the manual.
     
4. Design Challenge: Create Slides/Test Strips/Data Tables
   • Each Team will be required to prep their microscopy slides, their Ph Testing Strips, or Their Data Tables in the time allotted. Then each team but one member, will switch and the remaining team expert will mentor the next team on proper procedures. Then the teams will switch once more.
     
5. Conversation: Create a Manual of Operations
   • As each team switches between lab sites, they will create a manual of important topics to leave as a gift to the host team in microscopy, Ph and Soil Testing, and Data Collection Teams.

Animal Care and Safety

1. LESSON: Boot Basics and the Need for Them
   • Using microscopy skills, determine if a pair of boots is dirty or disinfected.
   • If dirty, use the provided bacterial MOST WANTED list to determine the species.
2. ACTIVITY: Create Ph Test Strip
   • Create a system to help people test the Ph of various materials.
   • Make a Chart that illustrates the scale of Base to Acid.
3. ACTIVITY: Create a Red Cabbage Universal Indicator
   • Why does this system work?
   • Is this organic system the same as a universal indicator?
   • Does the Ph Graph make more sense now that you know why?
4. Design Challenge: Why Do Animals Panic?
   • Conduct a study on the behavior of animals in the presence of other animals (remotely, using cameras.)
   • Conduct a study on the behavior of these same animals in the presence of humans.
   • How do they act differently? What can we do to help keep them calm?
5. Discussion: Why Do Humans Panic?
   • Working in teams discuss what you might be afraid of and why.
   • Create a chart of fears and how you can address them.
   • Create a "Best Practices" presentation to manage fear in the moment from the collected data.

Day Three:

Housing and Safety

Care and Treatment of Animals and Their Dwellings

Infrastructure and Housing -

1. LESSON: Care and Maintenance of Animals
2. ACTIVITY: Use a Rabbit Sling
   • This challenge requires that students determine a way to safely secure a rabbit so that it can hang.
   • Once the rabbit is hanging the claws must be safely trimmed.
3. Design Challenge: Build a Tractor
   • This challenge requires that students determine a way to build a mobile coop from materials at hand. The tractor must hold chickens, allow access and keep the birds safe, and feed and water the birds.
4. Design Challenge: Chicken and Duck Diapers
   • This challenge requires that students determine a way to keep chickens from pooping on the ground. The diaper must not impair the animals motion, but MUST capture all manure.

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1. LESSON: Sanitation and Safety
2. ACTIVITY: Understanding Manure and Fertilizer from animal and plant processes.
3. Design Challenge: Creating a Manure Block
   • This challenge requires that students learn to create a manure brick to fertilize a starter garden.
   • The Manure Brick is a 3D Printed mold that must be packed with manure and fertilizer materials and cast, dried, and stacked ready for deployment or donation.
4. Design Challenge: Ecology in a Box
   • Build a Lasagna Garden in a box with all natural materials and balanced life and chemistry..

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1. LESSON: What is a Pest vs What is a Pollinator?
2. ACTIVITY: Pest and Treatment Puzzles
3. Design Challenge: Design a Pollinator Garden
   • Using what we have learned about light, insects, birds and plants, design a garden that will attract the most pollinators and the least amount of pests.

Day Four -

Sanitation and Health

Chemistry and Sanitation

Pressure and Disease -

1. LESSON: Pressure, water, surface area and Sanitation
2. ACTIVITY: Bird Baths, water, diatomaceous earth, and sand
3. Design Challenge: Diagnose Wet Tail Syndrome
   • Students must identify conditions that make wet tail syndrome appear, how to diagnose it and treat it.
   • Then answer how we can design a system that is easier to maintain.

Bleaches -

1. LESSON: The Chemistry of ions, bonds, and atoms
2. ACTIVITY: Water and H2O2 When water is ionic
3. Design Challenge: pH: Acids and Bases
   • Students must use simple tools and instructions to create a pH testing strip.
   • Then students must test water from the evaporator and from the pond.
4. Design Challenge: The Family of Alcohols
   • Students must understand what makes alcohols either isopropyl or ethanol and how both are useful
   • Students will synthesize beer from apple juice for the bioreactor

Treatment -

1. LESSON: Treat On Site
2. ACTIVITY: Make a Diagnosis MadLib
3. Design Challenge: Becoming a Bold Presenter

Begin Planning Presentation Strategies and Data

1. LESSON: Public Speaking 101

Day Five -

Presentations and Report Out Videos

Research Wrap Up and Presentation Day

Diagnose a Problem -

1. LESSON: Animals and Plants in an Ecosystem
2. ACTIVITY: Observing an Animal
3. Design Challenge: Birds vs Mammals vs Insects vs Bacteria

Filming and Practicing Presentations