Name_______________________________________________________ Period ___
Paramecium
Prelab Questions:
1. Paramecium belong to the Kingdom
____________ and the Phylum
___________________
2. Where do paramecium live?
_______________________
3. What structures allow the
paramecium to move
_______________Procedure:
1.Obtain a slide of a paramecium
specimen. Place the slide under the
microscope and view with the
scanning objective. The paramecium
are very quick organisms that are shaped like a shoe. The scientific name of the one
you are studying is Paramecium caudatum. If you move your slide around you should
be able to find one zooming across the viewing field. You may also focus the
paramecium under low power, but may have trouble keeping up with the fast moving
protozoans. Watch the little guy carefully, as it moves forward it also seems to do
something else - watch the oral groove.
Describe how the paramecium moves.
2. Observe the edge of the water droplet. What do the paramecium do when they swim
to the water’s edge. Do they exhibit “avoidance behavior (Do they respond to objects in
their environment and avoid those objects?
3. Now that you have appreciated the paramecium's movement, we're going to slow it
down with a chemical that thickens the water. Put a drop of Detain on your slide.
(Cotton fibers can also be used to "trap" the protists) Use the scanning objective to find
a paramecium and observe its movements with the Detain added. How does it change
the way the paramecium moves?
4. Add a coverslip to your slide and see if you can focus on a paramecium using
high power
Look around the edges of the paramecium, can you see the cilia? Describe the
movement of the cilia.
5. Sketch the paramecium below as it appears under high power. If you cannot see a
clear specimen under high power, get a preserved slide from the front, these
paramecium are frozen, dead and colored, making them pretty easy to see. Label the
nucleus (which appears as a dark spot), the oral groove, the cytoplasm, cell
membrane and cilia.
6. Compare the paramecium to the ameba. Be sure to include how they are alike and
how they are different.