Little slimy wormy things
The nematode lab
This lab was about nematodes and how they are present in the environment. This lab was spread out into two days, one to observe the Nematodes and another where we went out onto campus to try and find them. For the first day of the lab we researched nematodes and observed a community of them under a microscope. To do this we looked through two different microscopes, one high powered microscope and a low powered one. here are some of the observations and questions I recorded:
HIGH POWER Low Power
For the second day of the lab we went to multiple locations
of the campus in search of finding Nematodes. My partner and I
got two samples of earth in find the organisms: In the mud
that was under a rock in a sort-of irrigation river we have on campus
and in the soil under a tree by the lunch area. After we got the
samples we came back into the classroom and recorded some of the
characteristics of our samples before we gave a piece of the
sample to our teacher so she could isolate the piece in order to
find any nematode that might be there. Here are the recordings we got:
Sample 1:
Light brown mud is moist and humid with little sediment and grass particles.
Sample 2:
Straight up dirt full of roots with sediment and plant matter, dry and crumbly.
Sadly these samples did not have any Nematodes, but we did find out that the samples picked up where food was or from the compost had a hight level of Nematodes.
HIGH POWER Low Power
- Big ones made a big clump together. Same as the High powered
- There are very few moving more of the big picture
- One seems to be moving into a
sort of pocket of another. Sexy
worm time? - Are the ones with hooked tails are males - Yes
- Some are more transparent than others
- Are they hermaphrodites - Yes
Research - What are they uses for?
Nematodes are mostly used for
genetic research
in professional and student labs. - How many cells do they have?
Nematodes always have a constant cell count of 959 throughout almost all of its life. - How long do they live and what is there life cycle?
Nematodes live for approximately 2-3 weeks and their life cycle is pictured to the below. - How might we use them in a Chemistry Classroom?
We might be able to use these organisms in class by observing them and studying how they are active in the environment an in our bodies. You can also use them to see how organisms change with every generation because they are a highly reproductive species.
For the second day of the lab we went to multiple locations
of the campus in search of finding Nematodes. My partner and I
got two samples of earth in find the organisms: In the mud
that was under a rock in a sort-of irrigation river we have on campus
and in the soil under a tree by the lunch area. After we got the
samples we came back into the classroom and recorded some of the
characteristics of our samples before we gave a piece of the
sample to our teacher so she could isolate the piece in order to
find any nematode that might be there. Here are the recordings we got:
Sample 1:
Light brown mud is moist and humid with little sediment and grass particles.
Sample 2:
Straight up dirt full of roots with sediment and plant matter, dry and crumbly.
Sadly these samples did not have any Nematodes, but we did find out that the samples picked up where food was or from the compost had a hight level of Nematodes.