How To Get Your Class Interested In Foraminifera

By Lisa Meyer


It is always nice when you can find something that is educational, particularly for the young ones. It is easy to forget just how steeped in wonder the natural world is when we get too caught up in the day-to-day. It is a great idea to get young people's curiosity sparked by showing them something like foraminifera, also commonly called forams.

Some people simply cannot learn new information when they just have to sit and listen to somebody give a lecture on it. There are plenty of people who find that more hands-on approaches to learning are more effective. That is a great reason to try out looking at these organisms under a microscope in the classroom.

Going online is the way that many people are able to better understand this sort of thing. It is just helpful to be able to see all of the resources in one convenient location. From there, you just have to click and type your way through, and the search feature definitely makes answering any questions you might have go a lot faster.

It is very helpful to know that most of these organisms are aquatic creatures. Most of them can be found in the oceans, and there is a great deal that lives on the life that exists at the bottom of the seas. Since there are so few of these creatures that live on land, the best way to acquire some is in the water, and from there you can just drop it onto a slide.

You might start by looking at diagrams if you have never seen this kind of thing before. Seeing things this way gives you the benefit of knowing what to look for before you actually try to hunt the things down under the lens of your microscope. Priming yourself with a diagram makes the whole thing a bit less overwhelming.

Many people consider these organisms to be armored since they do have their own little shell in the middle. This shell is called the test and is one of the highly defining features of the organism. It helps to keep it safe, and it can be made out of a variety of materials depending on what the organism ingests.

Many people know this organism by the ectoplasm that surrounds it. Others might not know it by that name, but they know that it looks like little hairs coming off of the organism. These fibers are used for different purposes, among the most important being getting food to the organism.

Since this is a single-celled organism, it is what is known as microscopic. This means that you cannot see the organism with the unaided eye, and it requires the use of something like a microscope. It is truly amazing to see all of the things that are there but are too little for your eyes to see.




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