Objective/Purpose: The objective and the purpose of this lab is to understand the concept of evolution and how life is all related. Along with this, we should become more and more comfortable with identifying ciliates and their morphologies. Then we also will be calculating soil texture and percentages which we will see next week.

Materials:

Falcon Tube

Compound Microscope

Dissecting Microscope

Micropippetors

Soil Sample from NFP

Extra soil from the baggy

slide

Procedure:

Soil Texture

1. Take 4 mL of the soil from the baggy and put it in your falcon tube
2. Add 6 mL of water and put it in the falcon tube
3. Add one drop of 2% dispersing agent into the tube
4. Vortex the tube for 10 seconds
5. Put it on the rack

Ciliate Observation

1. Take the NFP and put it on your dissecting microscope. Look for any movement in the soil or water
2. Micropippete some of the liquid and put it on the slide so you can observe it on the compound microscope
3. Continue to do this process until you see a ciliate or some movement

During this lab time I was unable to observe a ciliate moving around even though I took dozens of drops in varying regions of my sample. I know there are ciliates in my soil because I was able to observe one last week.

Storage: We made sure to put our baggies and our plates back in the white tubs that they belong in and to unplug and take out the microscopes and cover them up properly. After that, we made sure our lab areas were clean and to clean and properly put away the slides.

Conclusion/Future Goals: I was unable to find any ciliates today but I was able to have my soil texture ready for next week. I had to do 2 runs of this but it just helped me understand how to do the process. My future goals is to observe the ciliates that are in my soil and being able to identify it.