microorganisms

In this activity, students learn about soil quality and soil properties by conducting a visual soil assessment (VSA). The activity involves digging up a 20 cm...

In this activity, students explore chemical processes that occur within the nitrogen cycle. In a simple experiment, students use a jar of sand to follow the...

In this activity, students investigate microbial presence in soil by building a habitat suitable for their growth. Known as Winogradsky columns, mud, newspaper and eggs create...

Positions: Professor – Lincoln University, Principal Scientist – AgResearch, Chief Scientist – National Science Challenge: Our Land and Water. Field: Soil and water quality. Professor Richard...

Phosphorus is a chemical element found on Earth in numerous compound forms, such as the phosphate ion (PO43-), located in water, soil and sediments. The quantities...

New Zealand has a wide variety of landscapes. A day’s sightseeing journey might include volcanic plateaus, rolling hills, river basins and coastal lands. It is easy...

Once a year, scientists Megan Balks and Jackie Aislabie venture to the coldest place on earth, visiting climate research stations in Antarctica. Since the mid-1990s, Jackie,...

Roberta Farrell has been working in huts since 1997. Not just any old huts – Roberta is one of a multinational team (K021) who has conducted...

Dr Ross Monaghan, Dr Selai Letica, Professor Richard McDowell and other scientists from AgResearch at Invermay are researching how to reduce excessive levels of nutrients in...

Dr Selai Letica from AgResearch at Invermay is concerned about the nitrous oxide emissions that contribute to greenhouse gases. Nitrous oxide Greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere...

What’s going on inside us when we get sick? What do germs have to do with us getting sick? How does our body help us to...

Living Cell Technologies (LCT) encapsulates pancreatic pig cells inside a special coating before transplanting them into type 1 diabetics. This prevents them from being rejected by...

In this activity, students learn how each stage of the cheesemaking process contributes to the final characteristics of a cheese and how testing procedures are used...

In this activity, students learn how to identify potential safety hazards in a cheesemaking process. They learn how these can be minimised or eliminated to prevent...

In this activity, students investigate a range of cheeses to identify their characteristics and determine how these different characteristics are created. Purpose This activity will enable...

Whey has gone from being a waste product from cheesemaking to a highly valued coproduct. Whey is now widely used in the food industry for its...

Cheese, initially handmade on the farm, is now a major export for New Zealand. So how has the cheese and the manufacturing changed, and why is...

Cheese comes in numerous varieties of different styles, textures and flavours, but it’s all made from the same basic ingredient – milk. So what are the...

Gouda is a semi-hard Dutch cheese. A Hamilton-based artisan cheese factory makes traditional Gouda using milk directly from the adjoining farm. Discover how each step in...

Cheesemaking is the controlled process of removing water from milk. This process concentrates the milk’s protein, fat and other nutrients and increases its shelf life. Cheesemaking...

Explore the science and the art of cheesemaking and the development of this ancient biotechnology into a modern industry. Cheesemaking concentrates and preserves milk’s nutrients Cheese...

In this activity, students use a template to make a model of an adenovirus and investigate the different shapes of different viral diseases and the similarities...

In this activity, students explore what conditions are best suited to the growth of fungus using different types of food. By the end of this activity,...

In this activity, students research and summarise the key features of bacteria, viruses and fungi. By the end of this activity, students should be able to:...