Process1

1.With your parent or teacher, you and your lab partner need to obtain a water sample.

2. Prepare a wet mount using the water sample.

3. Use the microscope to find living organisms in the water. Start with the lens that gives the least amount of magnification until you have found something moving. (Plants may not be moving, but you should be able to identify green chloroplasts.) Do your best to keep track of the organism and eventually get focused on the highest lens.

4. Sketch a picture of the organism at each magnification level on your My Microscopic Zoo Information Sheet. Work closely with your lab partner to make sure that you are not observing the same organism. You each need to find two unique organisms in your microscopic zoo.

5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4. You may have to make many wetmounts with your water sample to find 4 unique organisms. Be sure to place your pipette in different spots in your water each time you make a slide. A small container of water is a very large area for a microscopic organism to escape a pipette tip!