Living Machines Workshop

This course developed a workshop for local middle & high school students. The student workshop taught the students the basics of Living Machine history & construction. A second workshop for teachers showed them how to integrate living machines into their curricula.

VCS students learned how to build living machines, the biological theories behind their construction and use, and the history of living technologies. Students were familiarized with the following concepts: Food webs, energy/nutrient flow, basic hydrodynamics (siphons & pumps, water balance systems), aquaculture, hydroponics, local aquatic species, keystone species, and indicator species. Our students designed two working living machines: one was a 'basic' machine that we would use as a teaching tool, the second was a demonstration machine, more complex and part of an on-going experiment. Other students learned how to design & carry out mass-mailings, and how to design and publish an instruction manual.