Date of Experiment: August 30, 2018.

Rationale: The reasoning behind this lab is to compare the varying structures, size, location, and other characteristics of 6 different ciliates. By recording the characteristics of each ciliate, the goal was to possibly identify the unknowns. Another purpose for this lab is to familiarize ourselves with the dissecting microscope

Procedure:

1. Obtain a clean 24 well plate
2. Pipette each unknown ciliate with its designated pipette into different wells (about halfway)
3. Keep each unknown pure- do not reuse a pipette on more than 1 unknown
4. Observe each unknown under the dissecting microscope
5. Note the various characteristics of each ciliate in a table

Data:

Possible Ciliate names:

1. Tetrahymena
2. Euplotes
3. Paramecium
4. Pseudokeronopsis
5. Spirostomin
6. Spirotrich

Storage: The students dumped the ciliate samples, rinsed the well plates with a cleaning solution/water, and placed the well plates upside down on a paper towel to dry.

Conclusion: This lab helped the students understand the many different structures and characteristics that ciliates have. It also led the students to the conclusion that because of their structures, ciliates may have different functions in their ecosystems. The lab familiarized the students with dissecting microscopes and how they should be used. In the future, it is my goal to be able to accurately label ciliates by their structure and characteristics.