Discovery on Wheels: the Biobus
a beat, Dubin-Taler welcomes the students, a group of six eighth-graders, to the Biobus. He then holds up the frozen yeast sample and explains that it was leſt onboard overnight, which leads the students into a discussion about what happens to water when it freezes (Figure 3). “So, what do you think?” Dr. Dubin-Taler asks. “Te
yeast and bacteria have been frozen. Do you think they’ll still be alive?” Te students raise their hands for yes, no, or undecided, and Ben encourages them to develop their hypotheses using what they know about bacteria and yeast. One student suggests that, because bacteria can still be alive in hamburger meat aſter it has been frozen, the bacteria in our sample may still be alive, too. With a few drops of thawed sample (Dubin-Taler has
been rubbing the vial between his hands while the kids talk), he shows the students how to prepare a slide and gives a quick tutorial on the microscope. Ten it’s time to test the frozen hamburger hypothesis. Impromptu investigations like this—what educators call
“teachable moments”—have been a part of the Biobus since day one, in the spring of 2008. Dubin-Taler had prepared a lesson on cell motion, and the students were looking at sample of goldfish scales under the microscope when they noticed something “huge” flapping around. It was a parasitic nematode; the students named it “Two-Lips.” “Te thing about microscopes is that you never know
exactly what you’re going to see,” Dubin-Taler says. “When things come up, we say, ‘this is unexpected, but what can we do to look at it and find out what’s going on here? How are parasites related to other organisms?’” When I visit the bus again, in spring, the students are
looking at samples collected from a nearby puddle. Suddenly, a bee flies in through the open doors. Two minutes later, in a quick transformation from disruption to specimen, the bee is caught in a clamp on a dissection microscope—the bus’s newest donation. Te message is clear: the world is interesting and perplexing, and the closer you look, the more interesting and perplexing it gets. Dubin-Taler bought the bus with his own funds in the
spring of 2007, a couple of months aſter finishing his Ph.D. in biology at Columbia University. Te idea for a mobile microscopy lab had come to Dubin-Taler a few years earlier during a cross-country bus tour with a group of friends. “We
were driving somewhere between Santa Cruz and San Francisco on a bus just like this—actually, it was this same bus—same make and model.” Te bus is the 1974 GM “Fishbowl,” the model featured in the movie Speed. “My friend was sitting next to me and she was musing about how the bus would make a great bookmobile. Being a biology grad student, all I thought about was microscopes, and I thought ‘it could make a great library, but it could also make a great lab.’” Dubin-Taler spent his first summer with the bus at the
Flower Shop, an artists’ compound in San Francisco, where friends helped him build a lab and convert the engine to run on vegetable oil. Te Flower Shop was a bare-bones operation; its members worked to minimize consumption and make use of all available materials, and the Biobus was renovated in this same spirit. “Te bus retains a lot of the for-better-or-worse qualities of the Flower Shop,” Dubin-Taler notes. “It’s 85–90% recycled materials, which is great, but at the same time it’s a little grimy—it’s not slick and sleek, not laminated or shiny.” It may not be fancy, but that doesn’t seem to dull its appeal
to students. When I catch up with some students to ask them what they thought of the Biobus, one freshman boy tells me, “If my science class was this fun, I would come to school every day!” Another student says, “I’ve never thought about being a scientist before, but this is so cool!” Te feedback Dubin-Taler has received from student surveys has also been encouraging. On a scale of 1 to 5, students were asked to rate their interest in pursuing science as a career. Before going on the bus, the average score was three. When asked the same question aſter their trip to the Biobus, students rated their interest at an average of 4.5. “Tat’s a short timescale,” says Dubin-Taler. “Minutes
aſter getting off the bus, they’re really interested in becoming scientists. Te question is, is that a long-term impact? And I think it is for some students.” Indeed, demand for the Biobus and “Dr. Ben,” as the
students know him, appears to outweigh supply (Figure 4). Te Biobus is booked through next fall with visits to schools, libraries, festivals, and museums—it will even make an appearance at the Six Flags amusement park later in the year. At virtually every school he visits, students and teachers ask the same question: When will you come back? As the students depart, I hear Dubin-Taler say, “Unfortunately there are over a million of you and just one Biobus.” Tat may not be true for long. Te Biobus now has two
full-time staff members, and Dubin-Taler hopes to add another bus to his organization. Tis spring, Dubin-Taler’s colleague, Sarah, is teaching a nine-week course on C. elegans to a group of middle-schoolers. “We’re hoping that the worm model will become the basis for another bus, which will be 100% focused on that organism,” says Dubin-Taler. Te worm bus would be devoted to more in-depth, longer-term courses— courses that could offer students a glimpse of the scientific life. “Our goal is to show students what’s beyond—what kinds of things they’d be able to do in college or grad school. To really light that fire underneath them.” All of the instruments on board have come by way of
Figure 3: Inside the Biobus with Dr. Ben. 40
donation (together, the microscopes are worth much more than the bus itself), and operation of the Biobus relies heavily on the volunteer teaching efforts of more than 100 scientists. “What we
www.microscopy-today.com • 2011 July
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