Bioremediation Simulator Lab 1
Description
In this interactive lab, students step into the role of environmental biotechnologists tasked with cleaning up a series of contaminated sites. Working from a central site map, students sample an oil-slicked shoreline, a pesticide-tainted farm field, an industrial lot laced with PCBs, a heavy-metal-contaminated plot, a nutrient-polluted river, a cellulosic waste tank, and a low-grade ore heap, diagnosing each contaminant and then dragging the correct bacteria, fungi, plant, or enzyme into the right container under the right conditions to treat it. Students choose between biostimulation and bioaugmentation, seal an anaerobic digester and sequence its four stages themselves, build a constructed wetland cell by cell, and watch each site visibly clear as their chosen remediation runs its course, with wrong choices explained rather than simply blocked. A free-play station and a side-by-side comparison with the real Exxon Valdez spill let students test what they've learned against both new scenarios and the historical case that shaped the field.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lab, students will be able to match a given type of environmental contamination to the correct biological agent and remediation method, and explain why factors like aerobic versus anaerobic conditions, pH, and substrate availability determine whether a treatment succeeds. Students will also be able to distinguish bioremediation, phytoremediation, constructed wetlands, anaerobic digestion, and bioleaching by their target pollutant, mechanism, and real-world limitations, and describe the four stages of anaerobic digestion in order. Finally, students will be able to apply the general bioremediation workflow, from sampling and diagnosis through treatment and verified cleanup, to both simulated scenarios and a real case study, and explain why biostimulation was the chosen strategy in the Exxon Valdez spill.