Eric Prullage completes his Winogradsky column at the University of Delaware's Coast Day festival, held the first Sunday in October at the Lewes campus. These columns are enclosed self-sustaining microcosms — literally "small worlds" — that give students the ability to grow multiple types of microbes under various conditions.

Science is not just a collection of facts and vocabulary to memorize. It's really more something you do. It's a way of learning and making sure that what we find out is correct, not just our biases, myths, and preconceived ideas getting in the way. That's what the scientific method is all about. Planning an experiment to test a hypothesis and carefully and objectively analyzing the results is a tried-and-true method for testing our explanations for things we have questions about.

Doing a science project, either for a school science fair or just for fun, is a great way to learn about a science topic that interests you and about how to do science. Sometimes you need a little help to get started, though. There are many Web sites that offer lots of ideas for science projects. Here are a few links to check out if you think you might like to try a project related to microbiology, biotechnology, genetics, ecology, or environmental studies.