Life Sciences lab classes explained

I know quite a few of you were having some difficulty  calculating scale bars   for your diagrams today... Some of you may have done one big scale bar representing the entire length of your zebrafish embryo, like I have done in this example diagram of a cell: In the future it would be good for you to know how to make a nice  little neat scale bar that represents a nice round number   (like  10  μ m  100  μ m  or 1000  μ m). There are multiple ways to think your way through this problem, but  here is what I would do : So, say you measured your zebrafish embryo and it was  3032  μ m  long. And say you have drawn a zebrafish embryo that measures on your page  24 cm  long... Actual Zebrafish embryo length  =   3032  μ m Length of embryo you have drawn  =  24 cm If you wanted to draw a scale bar that represents   1000  μ m ,  then how would you calculate how ...

As part of practical 1 you need to draw a couple of Zebrafish embryos and add a scale bar indicating the size of the embryo. In order to do this you will have to be able to measure the embryos under the microscope. You might find this a little tricky so I have written this step-by-step guide to help you out.... To make any measurements with your microscope you will need to calibrate your   eyepiece micrometer   using a   stage micrometer .  So, first of all, what are these? Eyepiece micrometer  : This is a fine scale that fits inside the eyepiece lens.                                       Its units are  arbitrary. Stage micrometer   : This is a scale fitted on to a coverslip. The size of the divisions are  known . Your aim is to find out how big one division is on the   eyepiece micrometer   at the magnification you are usin...

In your first practical you will be trying your hand at  biological diagrams .  You will get lots of guidance  in the lab, but I thought I'd share with you some important tips.... Seeing as pictures speak a thousand words, I have created some drawings of the femur or thigh bone in different styles so you can see what makes a good, bad and ugly biological drawing... This is a  bad biological drawing ! You are not after an artistic picture with lots of shading! Plus the title is not very descriptive, unsuitably placed and written untidily. And where are the annotations? Where is the scale bar? Basically, this diagram may look quite pretty but it is actually totally rubbish! This is an  ugly biological drawing !  It is too sketchy - the outer line is not continuous but it is made out of lots of short lines. The labels are not very descriptive and the label lines are untidy and not straight. Again the title is  not very descriptive, unsuitab...

It's not long now and you'll be doing your first practical! Here is a short and sweet summary of what you are going to be doing to help you get into the swing of things :)   (don't forget to read your lab manual for all the glorious details) You will be using a microscope to observe  Zebrafish embryos   (exciting!). You will be looking to see what differences there are between embryos that have and have not been treated with alcohol. Then you will be considering whether Zebrafish embryos are a suitable model for human embryos with  Foetal Alcohol Syndrome .   In this practical you will learn how to: use a compound microscope  create accurate biological drawings of a microscope specimen make measurements of specimens under the microscope This is how the session will be organised: Activity 1 :  Set up a compound microscope (one each) Activity 2 :  Get an untreated Zebrafish embryo onto a slide and exa...