LEARNING GOALS & DESIRED OUTCOMES LAB 1 1. Be able to name the microscope parts shown in the labeled diagrams.

2. Be able to describe what constitutes improper use of (1) the coarse focus control, (2) the revolving nose piece, and (3) the movable stage clamp and to list at least one major consequence of improper use of each of these parts. 3. Be able to routinely utilize all of the microscope use procedures described here. 4. Be able to safely clean the ocular and higher power objective lenses. 5. Be able to adjust the inter-ocular distance and the oculars (diopter ring) for comfortable viewing. 6. Be able to describe how the objective and ocular lenses interact to form the magnified image that the viewer sees. 7. Be able to describe the relationship between resolving power and numerical aperture. 8. Be able to describe what the condenser lens does and how an improperly focused condenser can influence both image quality and the usefulness of the condenser diaphragm. 9. Be able to define the following terms: resolving power, depth of field, working distance, parfocal (parfocality), contrast, differential staining. 10. Be able to describe how the following microscope parameters change as one moves from the lowest power objective to the highest power objective: (1) resolving power, (2) depth of field, and (3) working distance. 11. Be able to describe the value of binocular viewing to the microscopist. 12. Be able to give a positive and a negative aspect of using the condenser diaphragm to increase contrast. 13. Be able to give a positive and a negative aspect of using differential staining to increase contrast. LAB 2 1. Be able to define the following terms: absorbance, transmittance, absorption spectrum, path length, molar extinction coefficient, and max. 2. Be able to describe the relationship between the color of a solution and the wavelength of light absorbed by that solution. 3. Be able to list the 7 major components of a spectrophotometer and to provide a simple description of the function of each. 4. Be able to demonstrate competence in the operation of the provided spectrophotometers. 5. Be able to explain why a blank is required for spectrophotometric studies and to describe how the blank for a particular study is chosen. 6. Be able to describe how the value of E (the molar extinction coefficient) is determined for a given solution. 7. Be able to use Beers law to calculate the concentration of an unknown solution. 8. Be able to use C1V1 = C2V2 to make dilutions. 9. Be able to present spectrophotometric data in an appropriately labeled graph.

LAB 3

1) Be able to define and differentiate between the following pairs or groups of terms: a) solute - solvent. b) diffusion - osmosis. c) hypotonic - isotonic - hypertonic d) molarity - osmolarity. 2) Be able to define the following terms: a) concentration gradient. b) differentially permeable membrane. c) tonicity. 3) Be able to explain how variations in solute molecular mass, solute concentration, and temperature influence diffusion rate. 4) For an aqueous system where two solutions are separated by a differentially permeable membrane, you should be able to predict the direction of osmosis given the molar and/or osmolar solute concentrations on both sides of the membrane. 5) You should be able to explain why osmolarity differences are more significant than molarity differences when trying to predict the direction of osmosis. 6) You should be able to predict how plant cells will respond to exposure to a hypertonic environment and to explain the reasoning behind your prediction. 7) You should be able to predict how animal cells will respond to exposure to hyper- and hypotonic conditions and to explain the reasoning behind your predictions. 8) For the exercise where you estimated the osmolarity of some red blood cells, you should be able to explain why the lowest solute concentration at which the cells were unbroken represented a reasonable estimate of the osmolarity of the cells. LAB 4 1) Be able to define and differentiate between the following pairs of terms: a) inductive reasoning deductive reasoning. b) hypothesis prediction. (an educated guess will not be considered as an adequate definition of a hypothesis!) c) experimental protocol experimental strategy. 2) Be able to explain why gaining a thorough knowledge of the known facts related to a particular question is a vital prerequisite to proposing a hypothesis for that question.

LAB 6 1) Be able to define the term metabolic rate. 2) Be able to recite the balanced equations for fermentation and cellular respiration. 3) Be able to explain why measurements of the rate of metabolic gas production or consumption can be used as a valid measure of an organisms metabolic rate. Your explanation should include mention of the combined gas law and the balanced summary equations for fermentation and cellular respiration.

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Be able to explain why the use of balanced summary equations for metabolic studies of organisms with complex diets (consisting of many different food groups) is impractical. 5) Be able to explain why it was necessary to use the Ascarite/Drierite mixture when measuring the rate of O2 consumption of the seeds. 6) Be able to explain why it was necessary to compare the metabolic rates of the yeast and the corn seedlings on a mass specific basis. 7) Be able to explain why it was necessary to keep temperature (and pressure) constant during our measurements. 8) Be able to explain why it was necessary to include measurements of killed cells/seedlings in these studies. 9) Be able to present a factual and detailed explanation of why the yeast cells typically have a higher metabolic rate than the corn seedlings. 10) Be able to explain why it might be important to consider the fact that yeast cells have mitochondria when interpreting the results of experiments like the ones you performed? 11) Be able to explain why the corn seedlings for this lab were grown in the dark? LAB 7 1) Be able to define the term genetic transformation. 2) Be able to list the two steps in genetic transformation and to identify which step is associated with a change in genotype or a change in phenotype. 3) Be able to explain what plasmids are and how they are involved in genetic transformation. 4) Be able to explain why the E. coli cells used in our experiments are said to be competent. 5) Relative to the primary exercise on genetic transformation, you should be able to name the gene that we attempted to insert into the E. coli cells, name the protein that it codes for, and give the function of that protein. 6) Be able to explain how and why ampicillin was used in these experiments. 7) For each of the steps of the transformation protocol listed below, you should be able to explain how that step facilitated the transformation process. a) cold incubation after the addition of the plasmid b) the heat shock c) the outgrowth step (two considerations here) 8) At the end of the transformation exercise, we ended up with the 4 plates listed below. You should be able to explain what each of these plates contributed to our interpretation of the experiment. a) +DNA / AMP b) +DNA / LB c) -DNA / AMP d) -DNA / LB 9) Be able to define the term transformation efficiency. 10) Be able to explain how we knew whether or not the plasmid used in the Special Exercise contained added DNA.