Biofilm Simulation at the G.C. Marine Reserve

Biofilm Simulation at the G.C. Marine Reserve

Dear Mom,

So, to start off, the picture above and below are pictures of the yummy lab we did on Friday! You ask, why the weird combination? The point of this lab was to simulate biofilms and how they work. Biofilms are a bunch of life on a thing, simple as that. The graham cracker represented Plexiglas; the icing was the EPS, or in easier terms slime. We then had to add the "organisms." The first organism to stick was the red coralline algae (red sugar crystals). We then added a slightly bigger organism called diatoms (brown long johns). The next organisms were the barnacles (rainbow sprinkles) and then the coral (rainbow long johns). Oysters were the next organisms that we added; they were represented by flower sprinkles. The last product we added to our biofilms were for every ten barnacles, we added a small marshmallow. All in all my biolfilm had 144 organisms land on it. This is lab was a great way to show how a biofilm works, while also being very delicious! We should try it some time! :)

Love, Autumn!