Online learning with Feed the World at Bexley High School

“Learning about all the resources available on the Feed the World website has helped out greatly with teaching students remotely,” said Jennifer Messerly, a biology and AP environmental science at Bexley High School. Messerly attended the virtual Feed the World workshop this summer and has incorporated several of the activities in her teaching this fall.

Her regular biology classes completed the fermentation in a bag lab the first week of school as an introduction to the scientific method. Messerly plans to have students repeat the experiment again when studying cellular respiration, changing a variable such as using different sugars or adding enzymes.

“In my biology class I have a lot of students that benefit from the hands-on approach to learning. The fermentation in a bag experiment provided an easy and fun way for students to problem-solve and design a controlled experiment.
It was a nice change from doing work strictly on the computer during distance/remote learning. They found it easy to do the activity and enjoyed comparing their results with each other. Actually observing the gas produced helped in developing an understanding of the process of fermentation.”

The fermentation lab has also helped students to do other labs involving gas production throughout the year. In a photosynthesis lab, students used a water plant and observed oxygen produced at different light distances, and in an enzyme lab, they observed the gas produced by catalase using a gas pressure sensor.

“The workshop provided me with other ways to evaluate my student’s understanding of abstract concepts in biology—fermentation, for example,” said Messerly.