Today we started lab with pond specimen collection as preparation for next week’s Module 2 lab. The girls put measured amounts of a different food source (hay, rice, soil, and egg yolk) in each of 4 jars, then headed to the pond to collect. The jars are sitting on my back porch to “culture” until next week, when hopefully we will be able to see a good variety of organisms under the microscope! After the pond collection we were back at the microscopes looking first at some threads, then at our cheek cells. They all did a great job remembering microscope techniques from last week and were able to find things more quickly and easily. They also got to work with methylene blue stain for the first time to look at the cheek cells. We finished up lab time with a Module 1 vocabulary review game. I read the definitions and they took turns attempting to write the correct biology term for the definition on the dry erase boards, but they only had 30 seconds to come up with their answer. I could tell they have been studying!
Visit the Module 1 Study Resources page for more vocabulary games!