Mitosis Lab!

We intend to use already prepared slides of onion and fish cells and observe the cells and their different stages of a cells reproduction process through a microscope. We want to identify properties of a certain stage on all of the samples and count the number of each stage there is.

I think when we count all of the cells there will be the most Interphase cells then the next most will be Prophase, then Metaphase, then Anaphase, then Telophase and Cytokinesis. I think this because we learned that a cell spends most of its time in Interphase so it makes sense for that one to be the most, but Prophase takes a lot more time than the rest of the phases, and the rest of the phases are in the order we learned about how much time a cell spends in each.

1. Place your sample under the microscope on minimal zoom

2. Move the slide around to find an area with both a good concentration of cells and cells with from afar look like many stages of mitosis mixed in

3. Zoom the microscope on the selected area to a preferred zoom

4. Look and focus the the sample

5. Once focused take your camera fill the frame with the sample and take a picture

6. Print the photo

7. Take your pencil and remove all non identifiable cells. (Unfocussed cells, dark cells, bright cells, etc.)

8. Cut the remaining  cells into a few groups by area by drawing lines in-between the cell groups (this is so you can count each group at a time and not get lost on the big picture)

9. Start identifying and counting all the cells one group at a time count them with tallys on the back or bottom of your paper

In this experiment I learned that even though the cells were statistically supposed to be dispersed differently they can go against that and be slightly or massively different. "I think when we count all of the cells there will be the most Interphase cells then the next most will be Prophase, then Metaphase, then Anaphase, then Telophase and Cytokinesis. I think this because we learned that a cell spends most of its time in Interphase so it makes sense for that one to be the most, but Prophase takes a lot more time than the rest of the phases, and the rest of the phases are in the order we learned about how much time a cell spends in each." we have tested and found this hypothesis to be false we now know that cells can disperse differently than what is statistically average. Next time I do this lab I would probably spend more time making sure everything was or is focused to get more accurate data.