Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2014, Volume 35
Mary Ann McLean
Abstract
Diversity is an important component in our Introductory Biology sequence. However, bringing home the idea of bio-diversity can be a challenge: students relate bio-diversity to programs on the Discovery Channel and have little concept of their local bio-diversity. Creating Winogradsky columns during the first week of labs allows students to investigate their local diversity of microbes and invertebrates over the next eight months. Each student constructs a Winogradsky column from soil and water and includes sources of carbon, sulfur, and other minerals.. Column communities and diversity differ significantly depending on the source of the original soil and water, the nutrients supplied and the proportion of masking on the column. During the year, the students sample their columns for bacteria, cyanobacteria, protists, algae, fungi, moss, plant seedlings and small invertebrates observing a wide diversity of organisms in their own and in other students' columns. In addition to promoting discussions of food webs and ecological communities, the value to each student of a personal Winogradsky column using the student's own garden or local soil was tremendous in increasing knowledge and enthusiasm about bio-diversity.
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