MicrobeLab ✕
◆ MicrobeLab Learn 🧪 Dilution 🎓 Teach 🗺️ Adventure 🤝 Together ⋯ More 🧭 My Journey Teach the Cast Some of MicrobeLab’s cast are still learning. When you teach them, YOU learn it best — catch what they get wrong, then quiz them.
✕ Teach Lacto You be the teacher — Lacto is still learning. Helping Lacto figure it out is the practice. (Lacto's progress stays on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.)
🎓 In a minute you'll be the teacher. Get ready to teach Lacto: most microbes are HELPFUL or harmless.
Most microbes are helpful or harmless. Gut bacteria help digest food and make vitamins; only a small fraction cause disease.
Teach the connections
Show how the microbe ideas connect You've helped them one at a time. The real understanding is how the ideas CONNECT — teach that next.
Spore (pathogens — the microbes that can make you sick) × Guard (immune cells — check IDs, patient and careful)
Why does Guard patiently 'check IDs' — what is it watching for?
For Spore's pathogens — Guard exists to catch the microbes that don't belong For helpful gut bacteria, which it destroys Nothing — immune cells act at random
Spore then says: “Immune cells attack every microbe in the body, helpful or not.” — is that right?
Guard checks IDs — it targets Spore's pathogens and lets the helpful microbes pass Right, it attacks everything
The link: pathogen and immune cell are two sides of one story — the invader and the guard at the door.
One tries to slip in; the other checks the ID.
Crumble (decomposers — break dead leaves and scraps into rich soil) × Net (mycorrhizal fungi + nitrogen-fixers — feed nutrients to plants)
A leaf falls, rots, and its goodness ends up in a growing tree. How do Crumble and Net hand off?
Crumble breaks the leaf into soil nutrients; Net routes those nutrients into the plant — a two-step relay They do the same job twice, so one is redundant Decomposing and feeding plants are unrelated processes
Crumble then says: “Dead leaves just disappear — nothing connects rotting to plant growth.” — is that right?
Crumble turns the leaf into soil nutrients and Net feeds them to plants — that's the nutrient cycle Right, rotting and growth are unrelated
The link: the nutrient cycle is a relay — Crumble releases, Net delivers.
Rot it down, then feed it forward.
Capstone — read one tiny ecosystem together Three microbes, three jobs. Bring in the cast member for each.
Turns sunlight into food and the oxygen we breathe. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Photo — photosynthetic microbes Guard — immune cells Crumble — decomposers
Breaks fallen leaves into rich soil so nothing is wasted. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Crumble — the decomposers Net — the nutrient-router Photo — the sun-eaters
Makes bread rise with little pockets of air. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Yeast — the helpful fungus Lacto — gut bacteria Colony — biofilm builders
The synthesis: some microbes capture the sun's energy, some recycle the dead, some transform our food — the tiniest life runs the whole system.
Capture, recycle, transform — microbes at work.
Try it in the microbe tools →
Reading Access Make reading comfier. Saved on this device only — nothing leaves your device.
Line spacing Normal Roomy Roomiest
Letter & word spacing Normal Wide Widest
Font Default OpenDyslexic Book
Reading tools Reading ruler Focus mode Read aloud Bigger tiles
Motion & sound No motion Sound off
Game look Usual Bigger and calmer
Same ideas with a younger band's look: bigger type and buttons, a rounder font, slower motion. For any child who wants it.
Heavy features Auto Full Lighter
Auto picks for this device. Lighter uses smaller downloads. Nothing is turned off.
Reset to defaults 