
Pond Water Under a Microscope
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What is swimming in a single drop of pond water? A scoop from a local pond can hold organisms from several of the major kingdoms of life.
You collect water from a pond and prepare wet-mount slides for a compound microscope. Start at low magnification and work your way up. Tiny organisms appear at higher settings, darting and drifting across the slide.
Sketch at least 10 different organisms and note their size, color, and movement. Then guess which kingdom each one belongs to based on what you observe.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that there are five kingdoms of life living in a single drop of water.
Method & Materials
You will collect water from a pond or lake, then bring it to your microscope for observation. You will make a wet mount, which is a slide containing your sample in a solution, to observe living organisms.
You will need a bucket or 2-3 glass jars with screw tops, a compound light microscope, glass microscope slides, cover slips for slides, an eyedropper, paper and pencil, and a wagon or cart (if needed to assist you in transporting the bucket or jars of water).
Results
After observing the water sample, you will be able to identify several kingdoms of life. You may see animals, bacteria, protists, and plants. You may also find single-celled algae with flagella in the plant kingdom.
Why do this project?
This science project is so interesting and unique because it allows students to explore the five kingdoms of life in a single drop of water. It also teaches students how to use a microscope to observe living organisms.
Also Consider
Variations of this experiment include collecting water samples from different sources, such as a river or ocean, and observing the different kingdoms of life in those samples. Another variation is to observe the kingdoms of life in a drop of saliva or a drop of blood.
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.Related videos
These videos explain the science behind this project and demonstrate key concepts used in the experiment.
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