Objectives of this Lab:

The main objective of this lab was to collect a soil sample to use for the Metadata as well as to continue looking for soil ciliates.

Procedure:

1. Obtain 4 mL of soil from plastic bag and put into tube.
2. Add water up to 10 mL of tube.
3. Mix contents together with the vertex.
4. Add a drop of dispersing agent and re-mix.
5. Observe tube after 30 seconds.
6. Let tube sit undistributed overnight.
7. Use ruler to measure % of sand, slit and clay.
8. Like lab 11, use soil from plate to continue looking for ciliates.

Observations:

It was easy to see the sand particles separate after about 3o seconds. I did not calculate the % yet as we have to let it sit overnight.

For finding ciliates I obtained 6 drops of soil from my plate and placed them on a concavity slide. Using an objective microscope I viewed the drops at 10x. My soil samples were very dense and I had to dilute the drops with water. I added 5 mL of water to the soil plate. Then I added 5 uL drop of soil into a concavity slide. I added 2 uL drops of water to the drop to dilute the sample however it was still hard to see anything so I diluted it again using the same procedure. Even after diluting my drops I still did not find anything. This includes ciliates or any other organisms.

In Future Labs:

In future labs I will have a better idea of what to look for when trying to discover ciliates based on this lab’s pre lab and what we talked about in class (morphology) prior to beginning the lab.