Virtual Labs: Gram Staining
© 2017 Learning Games Labs
Science teachers, take note, this is a set of clearly illustrated narrated, (in English) interactive slides that take you through each step of a lap procedure. This app is part of a series. In this case, you're testing for Salmonella and E. coli in a yogurt plant. You are the lab assistant, and are given a sample of yogurt. You light the Bunsen burner with a swipe on the screen, collect your sample and look into a virtual microscope to determine if you have any bad bacteria. Many of the screens let you swipe or tap to drive the action. You dip slides in water, set timers and so on. Note that this app is one of a series, called "Virtual Lab" that is free because it was grant funded. Gram staining is a process used to differentiate beneficial bacteria from dangerous bacteria in food samples. There are some minor quirks, for example it's hard to smoothly operate the eye dropper as you'll see in our demo video. But we loved the actual images mixed in with the slides. This app isn't fancy but it does the job. And if you pay taxes, you already paid for it. This work was supported by USDA and was created by Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University. Barbara Chamberlin manages the lab.
iPad, iPhone
Teaches: science, laboratory proceedure, bacteria
CTR Rating: 90%