Design Science Lab - Phytoplankton Project Part 1

Design Science Lab This class is a being offered to a select number of 8th grade students who had space in their schedule after completing several courses related to literacy building. This course continues their exposure to high level words, content in a variety of fields.

Alexandrium species - (toxic) 

Class at work on making prototypes

1 prototype of Dynophysis

Coccolithophore (left) and Cyanobacteria model (right) 

One of their first major projects was to create 3D structures of marine phytoplankton. Each student researched, wrote about and began making rapid prototypes of these transparent structures using recycled lab materials from donated labs. Students learned about a variety of microscopic species that fit into such as dinoflagellates, diatoms and coccolithophores. The species you see here include cycanobacteria, dynophysis, alexandrium, and a few others.