The 11th Grade class recently completed these microscopic drawings of wild aquatic organisms as part of Cell Biology with Mr. Cedar Oliver. There will be a full-size (1 square meter) physical poster on display in the high school later this week. Mr. Oliver explains, “The poster has the common names of each organism, followed by nicknames made up by the students in quotation marks. The drawings and descriptions were all produced by the students, with me in the role of editor/publisher.” When asked about the project, Mr. Oliver begins by explaining how “humans are much larger than most creatures on Earth—so much larger, in fact, that most living things are difficult for us to even see.” “In this course,” he says, “we shifted our perspective to observe and understand smaller scale life including the cells that make up our own bodies and those that live around us and inside us. First, we used magnifying glasses and stereomicroscopes to observe many living things on the school campus more closely.” “We also worked with large and small physical objects and materials to see how their behavior changes dramatically at a smaller scale. We then used compound microscopes and images from electron microscopes to observe life at an even smaller scale.” Students observed, drew, photographed, and filmed both single-celled and multicellular organisms. “We also studied observations and research from scientists to learn about the anatomy and physiology of cells.” For their final project, the class assembled some of their drawings of aquatic life from Hartsbrook into this large poster, showing the most common life forms at 1000x their actual size.