Students in Craig Kohn's biotechnology classroom are on the hunt for biomass degraders. Scavenging for unique samples in piles of leaves or compost bins, they can use a simple filter paper test to determine if microbes within each environmental sample are capable of growing on the plant material.
As they search, they're doing more than completing an activity in their bioenergy unit - they're searching for microbes that could play a role in creating biofuels more efficiently. In the process they'll also get to experience scientific research that has not yet been described in their textbooks.
Since participating in the 2011 Bioenergy Institute offered by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), Kohn, a science teacher at Waterford Union High School in Wisconsin, has been able to bring these real world research activities into his classroom.
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Craig Kohn runs through his new bioprospecting educational activity in a lab at the Microbial Science Building in Madison, Wisc.
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During the week-long institute, Kohn says, "I got a really strong grasp of what bioenergy is and the realistic outlooks of what it could do, what it could be, and its limitations."
The Bioenergy Institute is one of several programs GLBRC offers to assist educators with integrating bioenergy lessons into their curriculum. The programs bring researchers, teachers and curriculum coordinators together to form collaborations and produce high-quality educational materials.
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First Stop: Plants 
