The Case of the Good Bug

Beneficial Bacteria

Tour Stop SIX.  Plants and the environment. The Nitrogen fixers?

Stop at the next two sites to learn more about nitrogen fixing bacteria.

http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/microbes/nitrogen.htm

What is the role of the nitrogen fixers in the environment?

Draw or buy a postcard at this stop and paste it into your tour guide.

http://anka.livstek.lth.se:2080/rootnodules.htm

Tour Stop SEVEN.  Time to stop and look at ourselves.  What is normal flora?

http://www.bact.wisc.edu/Bact303/Bact303normalflora

http://www.bact.wisc.edu/MicrotextBook/disease/normalflora.html

Discover the normal flora of your mouth and throat

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/normalflora.html

http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~sabedon/biol2035.htm

Go back one page,  with the arrow  and find the normal flora of your gut.  Use the arrow at the bottom of the page.

Tour Stop EIGHT.  You stop at a heap of leaves, trash, and miscellaneous items.  This is a compost heap.  Why is this important for all of us to know?

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/zdcmain.html

http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/compost/microorg.html

Tour Stop NINE.  When you were younger you read about the EXXON Valdez and the damaging effects of an oil spill.  How can microbes help with problems like this?

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF6/609.html

Your tour is over – and now you can reflect on what you learned about both the harmful and beneficial effects of bacteria.  What is your opinion now?  Do you now have a better understanding of the role of bacteria in your life?