Bio 300L Practical Skills Test

Station 1: Spectrophotometer

Using proper spectrophotometric technique, find the absorbance of the solution in the test tube at the wavelength written on the tube.

set wavelength, wipe blank tube, put blank tube in, press button to blank, take out, wipe control tube, put control tube in, record absorbance to 2 decimal places

Station 2: Pipetting

Take a piece of paper from the beaker. It will give you a volume to pipette. Show the TA/instructor your volume setting on the micropipette. 

Then pipette that volume of water onto the weigh boat.

•  choosing correct pipette and tip

Station 3: Serial Dilution with a Serological Pipette

Take a piece of paper from the beaker. This shows the volumes you need to place in each tube.  

Prepare the two tubes using proper technique for serial dilution.

•  calculating volumes correctly

•    pipetting from stock

•    mixing with vortex or pipet

•    pipetting diluent

Station 4: Microscopy

Find a blood cell under 400x total magnification using proper focusing technique. 

• finding specimen on slide using lowest magnification

• using only lens paper if lens or eyepiece requires cleaning

Station 5: Graphing

Enter the provided data into a spreadsheet. 

Make a scatter plot of absorbance as a function of concentration of p-nitrophenol, including a trendline and equation. Be sure to add all elements required for a graph.

trendline, equation, axis titles and units

title: the effect of independent variable on dependent variable