NAMES: BSP 3A

Gonzales, Xenn September 2017

Hernandez, Danielle
Javier, Marial
Jazmin, Angelie,
Marave, Allen Patrick

Laboratory Activity 2 | Microbes from a Hay Infusion

INTRODUCTION
Protozoans are unicellular organisms that are found in most habitats. They have
complex internal structure that can carry out complex metabolic activities. In this activity, a
sample from hay infusion, a common culturing technique, is collected to find and observe the
protozoans live in their environment.

OBJECTIVES
1. To be able to find and identify at least one protozoan from a sample of hay infusion
2. To be able to describe the protozoan found from the sample of hay infusion

MATERIALS
- Jar - Hay - Pond water
- Microscope - Glass slides w/ cover slips - Medicine dropper
- Tissue
-
PROCEDURE
1. First make the hay infusion. Put the pond or creek water into a jar, and add pieces of cut
hay. Cover the jar loosely using nets or stockings.
2. After about a week, the hay infusion population will peak. Using a dropper, get small
water samples from the top of the water, the bottom of the jar, and near the floating debris
in the middle. Using samples from all of these areas will give you the best chance of
getting different types of microbes for viewing.
3. Observe the samples and look for protozoans. Capture images/videos of your
protozoans.

OBSERVATIONS
Place your images and compare the samples to the illustration of common protozoans in
pond water. Refer to the images present in the handout. Use additional page if necessary.
 www.photomacrography.net

1 2 3

The images 1 and 2 are taken from a footage wherein several protozoans can be seen. Based on
a photo of comparison, the seen protozoans are suspected to be paramecium. This protozoan
was observed moving quickly. They are attached to a hay as seen on the images.
Paramecium, the protozoan seen in our sample is highly sensitive. When it bumps to a stimulus,
it rotates to another direction. It is called the avoidance behavior.
While the members were trying to find a protozoan, a parasitic
worm was on sight. The photo on the left is the actual parasitic
worm from the sample. A paramecium can also be seen passing
by. This worm can actually invade blood vessels if it penetrated in
humans skin.

4
CONCLUSION

Protozoans are unicellular organism that can grow under certain factors. In this case,
hay infusion is one way to do that. Protozoans move on their environment quickly because they
possesses cilia or hair-like structure. As we conduct further research about this minute
organisms, we found out that this organisms acquires carbon from their environment thus, this
organisms performs photosynthesis. Bacteria in the water sample serve as the food for the
protozoans, which means that the dirtier the water sample, the more protozoans will grow. For
instance, our water sample wasnt much dirty enough so we collected a sample from another
group. The span of time culturing the pond water was an important factor to consider when
doing this kind of experiment.

This experiment made us realize that, there are still many existing living organism that
is not visible to our naked eye. And we dont know, maybe, we are ingesting a lot of protozoans
inside our body that may harm us. Especially the parasitic worm that weve seen during the
activity.