User:Elizabeth Schott/Notebook/Biology 210 at AU

1/21- Hay Infusion Lab & Dichotomous Key

The purpose of this lab was to use the Dichotomous Key to identify the bacteria from our transect sample. We predicted that there would be bacteria living in the hay infusion because of the controlled environment (jar) that was supplied with food source. If there were bacteria in the jar from the transect, they would grow and multiply.

Materials & Methods: -Dichotomous Key -Hay Infusion -Microscope -Slides w/ samples from transect -Agar & Tet plates -Micropipetter -Glass spreader -Ethanol (& fire)

In lab, we took samples from our hay infusions, one from the top layer niche and the bottom layer nice, and put them onto slides which we observed under the microscope. Using the Dichotomous Key, we were able to identify the organisms living in our transect as Pelomyxa, Bursaria truncatella, Colpidium, and Paramecium. After identifying the bacteria in our transect, we wanted to see if we had missed any and see if any of the ones we did find were from an antibiotic resistant strain. To proceed, we used serial dilutions from our hay infusion into 10^-2,-4,-6,-8 concentrations. We then placed a 100μL of each dilution onto an agar plate using a micropipette, and spread the bacteria using a glass spreader (which was then sanitized by ethanol and burned over fire). We repeated this process using tetracycline (antibiotic) plates to see if any were resistant.

We are hoping to find no antibiotic resistant bacteria, and re-observe the bacteria in the agar plates after a week of growth. EMS

1/21- Transect 1

The purpose of this lab was to familiarize ourselves with our individual transects and identify the abiotic and biotic components of it. My group's transect, Transect 1, is located in front of the Kogod School of Business building. Our long term goal is to discover what kind of bacteria live in the environment, by which we would make hay infusions & observe them in the next lab.

Materials & Methods: -Abiotic materials: rocks, soil, trash, metal sign, snow -Biotic materials: grass, red cardinal flower, leaves, moss, cat tails -Test tube -.1gm Powdered Milk -500 mL Water -Jar

The general features include tall grasses, bushes, and mossy soil. To resource for our hay infusion, we took a 50 mL test tube and filled it with both abiotic & biotic materials from our transect. In the jar, we placed 10 g of the transect sample, .1gm of powdered milk, and 500 mL of water. This completed our hay infusion that we would observe in next weeks lab.

Hopefully if there are bacteria in our transect, the sample subset should be able to feed off the powdered milk and water and grow over the next week.

EMS

1/21 Hi! My name is Elizabeth Schott, this is my first post on OpenWetWare for my Bio210 lab :) EMS