GCCCD The Unseen World Part 2 Life in The Hidden Realm Biology Lab Report

Exercise 4: The Unseen World Part 2: Life in the Hidden RealmTake a drop of water from a pond and look at it under a microscope and you will enter a whole new universe that you probably never suspected existed. You will use today’s lab exercise to learn about that realm, and on the way, you will learn to use an important tool in biology, the compound microscope. Remember to use the information in the pre-lab to think about the questions posed here.The ScenarioYou are a scientist who is studying the ecosystem of a small pond near your home. You have decided to examine the pond at intervals over the next year to find out how the composition of organisms living in the pond changes over the year. This will be your initial set of observations about the pond. Your objectives will be to examine some of the pond water to observe and classify the different types of organisms that are growing there, and to speculate about the overall structure of the ecosystem.For this exercise, since you don’t have a microscope at home, you are going to use videos to look for organisms that would be found in a freshwater pond. You are trying to find a cross section of organisms that represent both producers and consumers of the ecosystem. In the second activity, you will work with other students in the class to try and find the widest possible cross-section of organisms that may exist in the ecosystem. Activity 1To complete this activity you will be looking at a series of videos of organisms found in freshwater ponds. The first video should be this one, as it covers the pond system at the broadest level; Be sure that you drawings represent a variety of plant, animal and protists. Once you have completed this first video, then you should take a look at the next group of videos. As you are watching the videos, you should locate and draw a picture of at least 8 different organisms, four microscopic ones, and four macroscopic ones. Use the Skill Check worksheet for your drawings. Underneath each sketch you should write the following information:The name of the organism if you can determine it using the one of the following web sites or if its name is given in the video. Write a brief description of the color and shape, any movement pattern, whether it uses cilia or flagella to move Record any behavioral actions that you see, for example, responses to light, response to obstacles in its pathEstimate the size of the organism (refer back to the Exercise 3 prelab if necessary) (This one may be very difficult, but see if there is any way that you can estimate size); is there any information in the video that could help you figure this out. How many organisms of this type did you find? Are there a few of them, or are there a lot of them? Estimate how heavily populated this ecosystem is with this organism.Note the video you used to find the organism and the time stamp on the video where you found it.

Here is a list of videos that you can use to find these organisms: Nikon Microscopy U; Pond Life Video Galleryhttps://www.microscopyu.com/galleries/dic-phase-co…Lots of Pond Water OrganismsHow Microscopic Hunters Get their LunchLife in a Drop of WaterMicroscopic LifesXXpC6KPLOPCBukoxgNEgRfBu-or&index=8They are Everywhere!sXXpC6KPLOPCBukoxgNEgRfBu-or&index=5How to Observe Pond Water Life Under the MicroscopeIntroduction to the ProtistsAmazing microphotography; music is a little strange turn down the volume if it bugs you.Here are a list of websites that have a lot of information about these organisms that you can use in your writing about the organisms. .Organism identification SitesThe Smallest Page on the Web: This site has drawings, photos and descriptions of the different types of organisms that can be found in pond water ecosystems. There are good descriptions of the organisms and the various types of physical structures you will see on them.http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html? http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/smal1.htmlThe Molecular Expressions Digital Video Gallery: Pond Life. This site has descriptions and photos of a wide variety of organisms found in pond water ecosystemshttp://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/moviegallery/pondscum….The Pond Life Identification Kit: This site has organisms grouped by type, including bacteria, protozoa (a group of animal-like protests), algae (also protists) and larger animals such as wormshttp://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html

Activity 2Now that you have data about at least 8 pond organisms, is time to write about what you have learned. Write a paragraph or two describing the organisms you have seen and their behaviors. Make sure that you include plants and animals and protists. How do you think these organisms might contribute to the overall activity of the pond? For example, which organisms are plants or algae (producers) and which are protists or animals (consumers)? How do you think these organisms might fit together to form an inter-dependent community in the pond? Draw a proposed food chain based upon the organisms you have observed or obtained information about. This information should be typed (although you may draw your proposed food chain by hand) and uploaded along with the Skill Check worksheet that you turn in. Activity 3The organisms that you have observed are probably only a small part of the overall pond ecosystem. It is likely that there are other larger organisms that are also part of the system. Take the information that you described in Activity 2, and speculate how it would change if you were to add the following list of organisms into the ecosystem. mosquito larvaeFrogMosquito fishGreat blue heronHow would feeding relationships change? If you were to speculate on the populations of each of the different organisms (those you have observed, and those present on the list below), which of the organisms would you expect would be present in the greatest numbers? Which would be present in the lowest numbers (think about the energy pyramid from the pre-lab)? Add a paragraph or two to the information from Activity 2 that describes these modifications and upload this in attached to the Sk