STANDARDS

CCSS: 8.EE.A.4, MP1, MP7, MP8

TEKS: 8.2C

Article Options

Lexile® measure

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

Squishy Microbes

Why does this toy company turn microscopic viruses, bacteria, and more into cute and cuddly plush toys?

December 2022 / January 2023
By Jennifer Hackett
Image of students playing with squishy microbes

Courtesy of Giant Microbes (all images)

The supersized plush microbes are used as teaching tools and gifts for doctors, health professionals, and even patients!

Enlargeable image of a macrophage pink squishy with two large eyes

I’m a macrophage, which is a type of infection-fighting white blood cell!

Most of the time, the common cold is a cause for concern. But for the toy maker GIANTmicrobes, the common cold is a bestseller! Since 2002, the company has made plush toys shaped like microbes, which are organisms too small to see with the human eye. Some of their most popular plushes are the viruses and bacteria that cause the flu, pneumonia, or Ebola—but supersized. The designers then add beaded eyes and colorful details.

The first GIANTmicrobe was of the common cold virus. Founder Drew Oliver wanted his children to learn why it was important to wash their hands, so he made a stuffed animal shaped like the common cold to teach them about germs. From there, “it evolved into making science fun and accessible,” says Andrew Klein, the company’s current president.

Your Immune System
Watch a video about how your immune system works.

It can be difficult sometimes to decide which microbe to make next. “If you look at how many viruses and bacteria there are in the world, there are millions to choose from,” Klein says. That’s why they focus on microbes in the news. Since people are already talking about them, turning diseases like Covid or monkeypox into approachable toys helps raise awareness. Currently, both the original Covid-19 and the Omicron variant plushes are popular.

The designers are careful to get the shape of each microbe as accurate as possible. Then they add details like Covid’s protein spikes or E. coli’s flagellum, which are threadlike appendages that many bacteria have.

The toys are often used as a get-well gift or to commemorate diseases that friends or family have overcome. Ultimately, Klein says, GIANTmicrobes’ goal is to “bring awareness to health topics and make biology and life science more fun for everybody.” Learning about how diseases work is an important step in staying healthy. So the next time you catch a common cold, hopefully it’s a bright-blue stuffed one!

MULTIPLYING SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

Very small numbers, such as the measurements of a microbe, are often written in scientific notation. To scale up microbes, the designers at GIANTmicrobes multiply numbers in scientific notation to determine the dimensions needed for the plush toy.

Image of a formula, variable "a" multiplied by 10 to the nth power

EXAMPLE

Most common cold viruses have a diameter of 2.0 × 10-6 centimeters. The GIANTmicrobes common cold plush has a diameter 5,750,000 times larger. What is the diameter of the common cold plush in centimeters?

STEP 1

Convert the plush’s multiplier to scientific notation.

5,750,000

a = 5.75   n = 6

5.75 × 106

STEP 2

Multiply the decimal numbers together.

2.0 × 5.75 = 11.5

STEP 3

Multiply the powers of 10 together. Since the bases are the same, you can add the exponents.

10-6 × 106 = 10-6 + 6 = 100 = 1

STEP 4

Multiply your decimal number and power of 10 to find the product.

11.5 × 1 = 11.5

So the GIANTmicrobes common cold plush’s diameter is 11.5 centimeters.

Answer the following questions comparing the size of a GIANTmicrobes plush to the size of the microbe it is based on. Round all answers to the nearest tenth. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

Image of a light green flu virus squishy with one eye

The flu virus is 8.0 × 10-6 cm in diameter. The diameter  of the plush version is 1,250,000 times larger than the microbe. What’s the diameter of the plush flu virus?

Image of a brown Ebola virus squishy

The Ebola virus is 1.4 × 10-3 cm long. The plush version is 9,070 times longer. What’s the length of the plush Ebola virus?

Image of a blue bacteria squishy with eyes

The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus causes a staph infection. A large staph bacterium is 1.2 × 10-4 cm long. The plush version is 148,500 times longer. How long is the plush staph bacterium?

Image of a squishy that looks like a neuron

The diameter of a neuron, or brain cell, is 4.0 × 10-4 cm. The plush neuron’s diameter is 5,200 times larger. What’s the plush neuron’s diameter?

Image of a Covid-19 virus squishy

A. The Covid-19 virus has a range of sizes, and the smallest is 5.0 × 10-6 cm long. The plush version of this virus is 3,000,000 times larger. What’s the length of the plush Covid-19?

B.  Individual Covid-19 viruses vary in size. The largest Covid-19 virus is 1.5 × 10-5 cm long. Using your answer from Part A, how many times larger is the Covid-19 plush than the largest Covid-19 virus?

Algebra
Scientific Notation

Teaching Resources
Text-to-Speech