Intro Skills Lab Outline
Introduction
Using microscopes, capturing and analyzing images, and using pipettes to make solutions are among some of the most fundamental skills required to work in a laboratory. It is one thing to read directions on how to capture an image using a microscope, but it requires actually using the equipment to understand the types of issues one can encounter when trying to complete these “simple tasks.”
To help you become better acquainted with these common lab equipment, we have developed a few foundational lab skills exercises for you to complete. There are no marks associated with the exercises. They are provided as opportunities to practice using some of the lab equipment and software you will encounter during the course.
Compound Light Microscopy Principles
The Living System Lab Appendices will be your best friend when it comes to familiarizing yourself with the microscopes in the lab this semester. The microscope you will interact the most frequently with is the Primostar microscope, a compound light microscope that allows you to magnify up to 1000X while examining specimens on microscope slides. The other types of microscopes you will interact with this year include the stereomicroscope, which allows for magnified 3D viewing of specimens during dissection or interacting with model organisms, the inverted compound light microscope, which permits looking at the bottom of a petri dish to examine cells instead of viewing the specimen from the top, and a fluorescent stereomicroscope, for viewing fluorescently labelled proteins within a model system. Today’s lab will focus on beginning to work with the Primostar microscope, and practicing putting the microscope into Kohler illumination (placing the light path source appropriately to ensure the light passes through the specimen without causing scattering/refraction), changing between objectives to increase or decrease the magnification, putting the microscope into focus using the coarse and fine focus knobs, and capturing images of the view through the microscope using the accompanying computer software (Zen) and camera.
Micropipette Principles
A micropipette is a common and essential laboratory instrument. It is used to accurately and precisely transfer volumes of liquid in the microlitre range. You will see micropipettes used in various labs this semester, including the epidemiology lab, the cell biology labs, and the locomotion lab. Micropipettes are available in a variety of different designs and sizes, so the micropipettes used in LIFESCI 2L03 this year may look different from the ones you used in BIOLOGY 1A03 or in a research lab, but they all share certain components. This includes the plunger, display, tip cone, tip ejector, and grippy. A diagram of the Sartorius pipettes used in this course is shown below in figure 1.
This model is an air displacement micropipette – the pipette draws up the appropriate volume of liquid via piston-driven air displacement. The movin