Objective of this lab:

There were multiple objectives for this lab including learning more about Tetrahymena and practicing our microscope skills. In addition to these two, another objective was that after this lab we should be able to correctly use a Micropipettor.

Purpose of this lab:

The purpose of this lab was to be able to correctly utilize a Micropipettor including, how to measure the amount of liquid and which is the proper micropipettor to use.

Procedure:

1. Go over the different sizes of micropippetes and how the measuring and pippetting works.
2. Practice pipetting using a plate and regular water.
3. Practice by pressing to first stop, put the tip (with cover on it) in water, release slowly, then go to first stop on plate. After this go to second plate to let air out. I tried this using a 1-20 micropipette and also a 20-200 one.
4. Using a dissecting microscope, and a measurement of 100 microliters, look at the ciliates in the plate using a black light.
5. Then using a micropippetor absorb a measurement of 5 microliters of the ciliates and place on a concavity plate (using a P-10 micropipettor).
6. Place concavity plate under compound microscope and observe at 4x and 10x.

Observations:

At the 4x magnification on the compound miroscope the ciliates were fast moving and had a transparent look to them. They were very small and it looked like there about 50 0f them in my range of view, which at 4x was the whole drop of ciliates. I did 3 trials using 4x and my results were as follows:

I also did three trials using the 10x magnification and my results were as follows:

To estimate the number of ciliates I counted how many there were in a quadrant and multiplied that by four.

Storage: The micropipettes are put onto a rack where they hang. The tips are disposed of and the concavity plate is washed and left out to dry.

Future goals: In the future in labs similar I can come up with a more effective way to estimate the ciliate count through the microscope. I can also apply my knowledge of miropipettes as we will be using them a lot in future labs.