From: Kevin J Doyle (k-sub-d@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu May 31 2001 - 21:59:00 PDT
Message-ID: <005b01c0ea57$94a6fd40$dd7ebacd@oemcomputer> From: "Kevin J Doyle" <k-sub-d@ix.netcom.com> Subject: RE: Digest #656 Portable Biology and Chemistry Lessons Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 21:59:00 -0700
Regan,
Depending on where in Africa you are travelling there are some great things you can do there with local materials. In Southern Africa during our summer months its the "cool" season just after the rains and there is a huge variety of insect life moving about.
A quick collection trip will allow the students to teach your friend about the local fauna (ie what's safe and not) can be followed by an examination of similarities and differences that lead into taxonomy and classification. This is a completely new idea to a lot of students there if my classes while I served in the Peace Corps are any indication. Also dealing with the bugs that are easily obtainable is a great set of response lab/activities. The millipedes are out in large numbers during our summer months and they have a great response to touch. They roll up into a coil. Even better they quickly learn that your gentle poke is not a danger and the time they take to unroll decreases dramatically after the first few trials.
In a different area of biology, you can usually find the makings for a simple lung diaphragm demonstration using: a pen tube to represent the bronchial tubes, small plastic bags from a "freezee" for the lungs, a 2-liter cordial jug (any drink concentrate) as the chest cavity, and a large plastic bag as the diaphragm. Simply cut the bottom off the jug and rubber band or tightly tape the "diaphragm bag around the bottom of the jug. Tape the small freezee bag to a pen tube and poke it through the lid. When you pull down on the "diaphragm" the lungs will inflate.
Peanuts (called groundnuts) are generally easily available, so doing the peanut calorimetry lab is a fun one to deal with energy in either chemitry or biology. (Paper clips can be bent and poked into the peanut to make a great stand for the peanut)
There are local stills in nearly every village if you ask around and the fermentation and distillation processes can be discussed at those locations (be careful not to let the students sample as the conditions often have some methanol contamination)
In most of southern Africa the staple food is maize or cassava flour boiled in water until it has the consistency of playdough, but their breakfast is a porridge made in the same way but with different proportions. I used to use this as a way to introduce stoichiometry.
Red hydrangea (sp?) plants are fairly common and when the color is leached from the flowers it acts like an acid base indicator in much the same way that we use red cabbage.
These are the lessons I remember doing using easily obtained local materials that went well when I lived in Malawi two years ago. If I remember any more I'll add to the list. Contact me directly for more details.
Kevin Doyle
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