Rob
Day taught life-sciences and science education at The Ohio State University
specializing in artificial ecosystem engineering, digital imaging of microscopic
biodiversity and the role of students' visual abilities in environmental
education. Rob now works for a scientific software company in Columbus, Ohio.
Although about 10 million species work together to make this site possible, Rob Day reserves the copyright.
My chat handle for most systems is "invasifspecies". My ICQ number is 314592016. My staus is currently:
These systems are used to teach biological diversity to undergraduate students.
There are more than 15 separate marine and freshwater tanks housed in two adjacent labs. The total number of species maintained probably exceeds 1000 animal, plant and protist species.
Don't see the image you want? I have an extensive image archive
featuring many hard-to-find species of microfauna and protists. For a small
fee I can send you specific images or, my entire archive. Since my
microcosms contain marine, freshwater and terrestrial species from almost
every phylum, I can even create made-to-order images of
species representing taxa of your choice. email me for details.
This artificial ecosystem is used to teach observational skills and science concepts to children in grades K-5. A digital video system we call "the stream stream" is used to send live or pre-recorded video images of macroscopic and microsopic organisms to computers in every classroom in the school. Rob is involved with teacher training and instructional support designed to bring state-of-the-art scientific content to the classrooms. Children as young as grade 3 are taught complex tasks such as using real microscopes to search for protists and creating their own digital videos. Tremont Elementary is located in Upper Arlington, Ohio.
Whenever Tremont students have questions about the organisms they observe in their microcosm, they are encouraged to fill in a question form and submit it to Rob Day. The answers are posted online here. Not only does this help the children to develop and phrase their own written questions, it also provides a useful database of information that students, teachers and parents can use to learn about the basics of ecology, microscopy and aquarium science.
I get quite a few questions from visitors who stumble on this web site. The questions usually fall into three categories: students and hobyists asking about specific organisms, hobyists and teachers wanting to know more about the design, construction and uses of artificial ecosystems, and teachers asking about the integration of aquaria, microscopes and technology in classroom settings. I hope the resources on my links page will help you find some answers.
Rob
Day taught life-sciences and science education at The Ohio State University
specializing in artificial ecosystem engineering, digital imaging of microscopic
biodiversity and the role of students' visual abilities in environmental
education. Rob now works for a scientific software company in Columbus, Ohio.
Although about 10 million species work together to make this site possible, Rob Day reserves the copyright.
