Overview of Station

  1. We will provide an interactive lesson on the basics of microscope.
  2. Give a quiz on microscopes
  3. We will explain to the students a general definition of protists (unicellular, sometimes multicellular or colonial, organisms including the protozoans that live freely or as parasites).
  4. Then, we will begin an interactive demonstration in which they will view several specimens under a microscope and classify them to their movement (ciliates, flagellates, sarcodines).
  5. Finally, we will conduct a review activity.
  6. Evaluation: The quiz at the end of our lesson will give us a good idea of whether or not we have done a successful job teaching. We will ask basic questions concerning the definition of protists and the parts and their functions. A possible way to do this is by having a diagram with parts numbered, which the students then have to identify. The microscope section will measure the student's performance to see that each of our objectives has been met by the quiz given at the end of the presentation.

Materials

  • 6 microscopes
  • Poster showing the parts of a compound microscope
  • Poster listing the differences and similarities between simple and compound microscopes
  • Quiz on microscope
  • slides
  • slide covers
  • pipette
  • Sheet of colored organisms for teaching and reviewing purposes
  • 10 organisms from the kingdom Protista
  • Candy for rewards

Procedure

  1. Break the ice with a humorous comment that they will understand
  2. Overview of lesson (2 minutes)
  3. Give a brief definition of what protists are (1 minute)
  4. Let the students look at them under a microscope and record their findings (10 minutes)
  5. Explain what the actual parts are and what their function is. (5 minutes)
  6. Ask review questions, possibly in a game format, giving rewards to students who give correct answers (3 minutes):
    1. How are protists classified?
    2. What are the four ways of locomotion?
    3. What are the major parts of protists and the functions of each of those parts?
    4. How do protists relate to the cells of multi-cellular organisms?
  7. Administer a short quiz testing their basic knowledge of the subject (5 minutes)

Resources

  • Curtis, Helen. The Marvelous Animals: An Introduction to the Protozoa. Garden City, New York: The Natural History Press, 1968. This book had pictures and information on almost every single organism we ordered. Our fact sheet was based mainly on this book.

  • "Bios111; Animal Protists and the Complexity of the Eukaryotic Cell." 1997: 4 pp. On-line. Internet. 10 May 1999. Available WWW: http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/ hals/bios111/protists/nonflag.htm. This website had good and relevent diagrams-drawings of flagellates and euglena. It also had a bit of information on them also.

  • "What Cellular Structures (Organelles, etc.) do Protists have?" 1998: 1 pg. On-line. Internet. 12 May 1999. Available WWW: http://monster.educ.kent.edu/~compclub/inquiry/science/biology/97-98protists/bio7th/structures.html. This site gave us a definition of protists and pictures of one of our organisms, Paramecium caudatum.

  • "Protists." 1997: 2 pp. On-line. Internet. 3 May 1999. Available WWW: http://www.nearctica.com/nathist/protista/protista.htm. This site gave us the three categories of protists and described each one. Also it defined amoebas, diatoms, and eugleanas.