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| Termite gut through a microscope |
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| Chelsea and Kainoa trying to extract the termite's gut from its body |
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| Kainoa looking at the termite gut through the microscope |
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| Chelsea attempting to pull the termite | s guts from its body |
-The termite needs help digesting its food (wood). The protozoa living in their gut help them to digest their food by producing acetate. In return the protozoa gets food and nice, warm place to live.
-After collecting our materials and setting up, we began the procedure. First we dissected the termite by grabbing the thorax and the head with forceps. After we located the tip of the abdomen and then the termites gut. Pull the termites gut out, but if you are like my group it may take a couple times.
Then we put the termite's gut into the saline solution on the microscope slide and put a cover slip on top.
Then we observed our termites gut under the microscope, collecting any necessary date and filling out the lab worksheet.
-The lab started a bit frustrating. Our group had trouble extracting the termite gut from its body so Mr.Margraff had to help us. Once we got it right and looked into the microscope, everyone was in awe. We were having fun and shocked at what we were seeing. It was kind of amazing, how something that small can be so significant.
