Examining life in Biology

This week the Year 11 Biology students got the chance to watch some of the smallest forms of life through the microscope. Students were studying protists, which are predominantly unicellular eukaryotic microscopic organisms.
Taking samples and creating wet mounts of Amoeba, Paramecium and Euglena, the girls were able to observe how they moved. In the case of the Amoeba, it can appear very slow at first, but after a while the girls observed cytoplasmic streaming (the movement of the fluid substance called cytoplasm inside the cell membrane) resulting in pseudopodia as the method of locomotion for this protist. Cytoplasmic streaming also transports nutrients, proteins, and organelles within this cell.
Students were intrigued to watch the movements of these tiny life forms.
One student commented on how much fun Biology was. “It is so much more than just sitting at your desk, the experiments are really interesting.”