BIOL 1202 lab study assignments and lab guidesheets

For each week's assigned lab work you must print a copy of the appropriate lab guidesheet(s), shown as links below.  You must bring the guidesheet(s) to lab; it contains the instructions you need to do the lab work.  Note that for some weeks' assigned work, there may be more than one guidesheet to print. 

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For week #4 in lab (Monday Feb. 13 – Friday Feb. 17)

Study the detailed guidesheet, "Introduction to Microscopy"   Print it and bring it to lab; you can't do the work without the guidesheet. Also print a piece of graph paper; you'll need that at one point in the lab session.

2. Since the guidesheet refers you to several illustrations in your textbook, you will need the textbook in lab also as you observe some of the prepared microscope slide specimens in lab.

Two notes of caution here:

First, the most important aspect of this work is the effort to develop and strengthen your observational skill in using a microscope. "Looking at" specimens is not the same as "studying" them, just as memorizing lecture material is not the same as understanding it. Example: Looking at a normal human blood smear requires a few seconds. Being able to recognize abnormalities later requires that you first learned what normal is supposed to look like; that requires observational skill, which comes with practice and study.

Second, many people who have seen a microscope before, and have looked through one, think that they know how to use one correctly and effectively. Although such thinking is usually wrong, it leads some people to take this lab exercise lightly.  And that attitude will cost points on the lab exam.