During the course of these laboratory sessions, you will be expected
to become proficient in the performance of the following laboratory
techniques:
o Isolation of pure bacterial colonies
o Gram stain.
Development of competency in these techniques requires that you also know how to:
o Flame a loop
o Streak a plate for isolated colonies
o Use a light microscope.
Each
person is responsible for his microscope and is expected to clean the
oil immersion lens at the end of each lab in which it is used.
First-year students share these microscopes and, as you may remember, do not appreciate having to clean the microscope before it can be used.
A short
video that will be shown in the first laboratory session will reinforce
the microscopic techniques you learned in first-year histology class
and remind you of the correct way to use a microscope. It is expected
that after the first laboratory session, each student will be
able to focus on a stained bacterial preparation, find and identify the
bacteria present on the slide. Students who do not feel comfortable
using the microscope should ask for help from their sector instructors.
Each microscope was cleaned and adjusted before the start of the course.
If your microscope is not functional, report it to Julie Tippett in
Student Affairs Office immediately after the laboratory session. Each
student will need a functional microscope for each lab and to complete
the final exam. You will not be given help in focusing your microscope
during the final examination.
Remember that bacteria are always
viewed using the oil immersion lens (the 100X objective, which requires
the use of oil). The high power objective (not oil immersion) will be
used for the study of fungal morphology in Lab 5.
The methods on the following pages will be a useful reference for each laboratory session.