Environmental Isolate Report

1
Environmental Isolate Report

• Due Week of 4/29 at the beginning of lab.
• Late Reports will NOT be accepted, at all, no
  exceptions!
• 5 extra points for early submission
• Turn in report in lab the week of 4/22
• 5 extra points for species identification
• Convince me that you have identified the species
  of your isolate

2
Environmental Isolate Report

• Typed, 10-12 font, double spaced
• All tables and figures must be computer
  generated!
• There are no minimum or maximum page requirements
• This report will be longer than your previous
  reports
• Refer to McMillan! It is an extremely valuable
  resource!

3
Title Page

• See McMillan
• Follow that format

4
Introduction

• Purpose
• Why was this important to do?
• Hint it has nothing do to with teaching the
  students!

5
Introduction

• Background questions
• What proportion of bacteria have been isolated
  and characterized?
• How does this compare with plants and animals?
• Is the make up of bacterial flora the same from
  location to location?
• How diverse are microbes?
• How does this compare to higher orders?
• Why is it important to isolate bacteria from the
  environment?

6
Introduction

• Background questions are SUGGESTIONS!
• You do not have to answer all of thempick one or
  two.
• You are free to come up with your own questions.
• Do not include the actual question in the
  introonly your answer.

7
Introduction

• Answering the background questions is a GREAT
  place to include some of your references!
• Use the library website to find sources.
• www.nau.edu/cline Research Resources
  Find articles and research info
  Engineering and Natural Sciences

8
Introduction

• Paragraph 1
• General Background information
• Focus on how/why identification is useful and
  important
• Focus on identification of environmental unknowns
  (not clinical)

9
Introduction

• Paragraph 2
• Purpose of this set of experiments
• Expandshould be more than just one sentence!
• Hypothesis
• EX. An unknown organism can be isolated from the
  environment and classified using stains and
  biochemical tests.
• Should not pertain to the identity of your
  organism!

10
Introduction

• Paragraph 3
• Summary Statement
• Link the background to what you did
• General procedure
• Lead the reader into the materials and methods

11
Materials and Methods

• Usually the longest section of this report!
• Third Person, Past Tense, Passive voice
• Your OWN Words!
• Cite the lab manual!
• Do not include any results!

12
Materials and Methods

• Include the types of agar used in different
  steps.
• Relevant temperatures
• Room temp. about 22ºC
• Fridge about 4ºC

13
Materials and Methods

• Isolation
• Where did you get the isolate?
• How did you collect it?
• Purification
• How did you get your unknown pure?
• Morphology
• Colony AND Cell morphology

14
Materials and Methods

• Stains
• Brief and concise description of the stains
• The handout I gave you is a good resource
• Include primary and counterstains used
• Only explain stains that were used in
  identification
• Ex. If you never used the acid fast stain in
  identification, dont describe it.
• Explain the purpose of each stain
• Positive and negative stain

15
Materials and Methods

• Biochemicals
• Again, only describe the tests you used in
  identification!
• Remember, negative tests are also important!
• Purpose of each test
• Brief and concise procedure
• How to score positive and negative results

16
Materials and Methods

• Storage conditions
• What were you determining?
• Be sure to know the difference between storage
  and growth conditions!
• How did you determine the storage conditions?

17
Results

• Remember to include the Biochemical results sheet
  from your lab manual!
• Must be completely filled out!
• Worth 5 points!
• Extra copies can be download from the Micro Lab
  homepage

18
Results

• Include the results for all tests listed in your
  materials and methods.
• Do not restate the methods, only the results.

19
Results

• You may/should report your results in tables.
• First table in the handout is an EXAMPLE of what
  should be in your results.
• Include a brief explanation of what your results
  mean.
• Ex. The acid-fast stain stained the organism
  pink, meaning that it contains mycolic acids in
  its cell wall.
• Not The Gram stain was positive, therefore my
  organism is this genus.

20
Results

• Important results that wont necessarily be in a
  table
• Colony morphology
• Cell morphology
• Colony pigmentation
• Relative size (if possible)

21
Results

• Be sure to reference your table and figures in
  the text
• Label everything correctly!

22
Discussion

• Do NOT say
• I did a, b, c so my isolate is this.
• As can be seen from the data, the unknown is
  this.
• Take the reader through the logical process of
  elimination you used.

23
Discussion

• Walk the reader through how each stain or
  biochemical eliminated some organisms.
• Be sure your identification is supported (a.k.a.
  thoroughly explained) and logical!
• Convince me!
• Remember, it is easier for an organism to lose a
  function than to gain one.

24
Discussion

• Include a table of your isolates genus and
  several other potential genera from Bergeys
• Only list the test that were used to identify the
  organism
• Reference this in your text
• Second table in the handout is an EXAMPLE of what
  should be included
• Include a separate table for the species if you
  went that far

25
Discussion

• Clearly state the objective of this experiment
• Do not simply repeat your results
• Tie everything together and describe what it
  means
• What was your genus (and species)
• Relate the identification of your unknown back to
  your introduction

26
Literature Cited

• 6 total sources
• 4 peer reviewed journal articles
• Lab manual
• 1 book (Bergeys)
• Follow the format on the handout!