Journal Entry: Term 3 Week 4
Now we're really back on track with journal entries! Phew! Anyway, this week finally free from major disruptions.. but not for long.. i'm gonna end up missing the whole of week 6 due to HAVEN rehearsals.. sigh...
Aniwae, in accordance with the tradition of this blog, practicals first!!! This week's prac was an IA to measure the respiration of mealworms. The idea was to use a simple respirometer to measure the respiration rate of mealworms and then plot a graph. Sounds easy? NOT!! The mealworms were the ones causing most of the problem. Since theyre alive, they can struggle free! so yeah.. battle to fit them into the tubes. Basically the set up consisted of NaOH pellets in eppendorf tubes to prevent their smearing all over the tube injuring the mealworms when you put them in. Then you place mosquito netting into the tube to support the mealworms, then put the mealworms in, then a test tube stopper connected by a rubber tubing to a 1ml syringe which has a liquid level. The idea is that as the mealworms repire and the NaOH is taking in the carbon dioxide, the liquid will be pulled through the tube to take the place of the air being taken in. so the liquid level in the syringe will fall and that is taken to be your respiration rate. pretty interesting.. But because of certain issues, we get to do the prac all over again next week so i'll blog more about this next week.
This week, the other prac i did was the make up of last week's prac. That is, the same set up as this week, but instead of mealworms, you use kidney beans instead and take their respiration rate. Quite fun as well.. since everything's above, i won't go too much into this... on to theory lessons.... :P
For theory lessons, we basically covered teh rest of plant reproduction and then moved on to respiration. Didn't go too much into respiration... just a bit. I'm a bit worried now because i still haven't really got the hang of the whole plant reproduction thing.. so 'm just hoping i'll get it in due course. But that 's about it really.. nothing new.... same old theory lessons.... grrr..
But on saturday, i finally learnt how bad walking around in black shoes is for your leg msucles.. They're all kinda sore from walking around doing ushering at VCH for MEP national concert.. wonder why? ...
Aniwae, i've got alot of stuff to do before all hell brakes loose... hehe...
C ya!
Aniwae, in accordance with the tradition of this blog, practicals first!!! This week's prac was an IA to measure the respiration of mealworms. The idea was to use a simple respirometer to measure the respiration rate of mealworms and then plot a graph. Sounds easy? NOT!! The mealworms were the ones causing most of the problem. Since theyre alive, they can struggle free! so yeah.. battle to fit them into the tubes. Basically the set up consisted of NaOH pellets in eppendorf tubes to prevent their smearing all over the tube injuring the mealworms when you put them in. Then you place mosquito netting into the tube to support the mealworms, then put the mealworms in, then a test tube stopper connected by a rubber tubing to a 1ml syringe which has a liquid level. The idea is that as the mealworms repire and the NaOH is taking in the carbon dioxide, the liquid will be pulled through the tube to take the place of the air being taken in. so the liquid level in the syringe will fall and that is taken to be your respiration rate. pretty interesting.. But because of certain issues, we get to do the prac all over again next week so i'll blog more about this next week.
This week, the other prac i did was the make up of last week's prac. That is, the same set up as this week, but instead of mealworms, you use kidney beans instead and take their respiration rate. Quite fun as well.. since everything's above, i won't go too much into this... on to theory lessons.... :P
For theory lessons, we basically covered teh rest of plant reproduction and then moved on to respiration. Didn't go too much into respiration... just a bit. I'm a bit worried now because i still haven't really got the hang of the whole plant reproduction thing.. so 'm just hoping i'll get it in due course. But that 's about it really.. nothing new.... same old theory lessons.... grrr..
But on saturday, i finally learnt how bad walking around in black shoes is for your leg msucles.. They're all kinda sore from walking around doing ushering at VCH for MEP national concert.. wonder why? ...
Aniwae, i've got alot of stuff to do before all hell brakes loose... hehe...
C ya!
