Biology 135: Microbiology for Allied Health Sciences

Lab Midterm Study Sheet

You should be able to:

Identify the location of all safety equipment, and know all safety procedures.

Identify all parts of the compound microscope and know their functions

Calculate total magnification of the image

Describe proper use of the microscope

Know how to adjust your microscope for either brightfield or phase contrast microscopy.

Troubleshoot simple microscope problems

Identify the organisms we observed in the first two lab periods to kingdom

Describe how to make a wet mount and a hanging drop slide

Tell the advantages and disadvantages of these two kinds of slides

Read a tube of motility medium

Tell whether the organisms we studied are typically motile or nonmotile

Explain the difference between Brownian motion, bulk flow, and motility, and identify them if you see them

Explain how to use sterile technique to transfer using an inoculating loop, an inoculating needle, a sterile swab, and a sterile pipet.

Explain how to use sterile (aseptic) technique to transfer to or from: a broth culture, a slant culture, or an agar plate using the implements above.

Explain how to perform a three-phase streak

Explain how it works

Troubleshoot a three-phase streak that didn't work properly

Describe how to perform a simple stain and troubleshoot a stain that did not work

Explain the use of a simple stain, and tell how each is useful

Explain how to perform a Gram stain

Tell the purpose of each reagent

Explain the appearance of typical gram positive and gram negative cells,

Tell the kinds of organisms for which a Gram stain is not useful

Identify the three basic morphologies of bacteria, and the two basic morphologies of fungi

Troubleshoot simple problems with staining

Explain how to take an environmental sample from a surface of your choice and culture it

Explain how to take a nasal swab or a pharangeal swab.

Explain why you tended to get more bacteria from the second and third handwashing samples than you did from the first (prewash) sample.

Identify which of the media we have used in lab are general purpose, selective, and differential.