Anyone struggling or struggled with Microbiology?

Shawn91111 · Feb 15, 2017

Does your school offer open lab to practice? I am in Micro now and go to open lab to practice the staining and such

Marieh · Feb 15, 2017

I am sorry you went through this OP. Lab is a bit challenging in Micro. I sometimes get nervous especially working with the E coli, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus as I know Microbiology consists of a great deal of pathogens, therefore safety precautions must be utilized for each and every lab procedure. In our class we set up 2 labs a week incubate the cultures then the following week we collect our data from what we had set up the previous week and once it has been incubated. We look through the microscope and draw what the organisms shape, color and size look like.

As far as using a microscope our instructor showed us how to focus in on the organisms and get a good visual.

Sometimes its a matter of adjusting the lens on the microscope . I know when we did our yougurt lab, which was the first lab, everyone or almost everyone had to repeat steps at least once or twice to ensure accurate results would occur after performing the lab experiment. I don't know if this helped any I thought I would share my experience in Microbiology. Stay positive and consider it a learning experience for you.

BubbyBoogs · Feb 15, 2017

Your teacher should be showing you how to properly use a microscope. Did you ask for help?

ItsThatJenGirl, CNA · Feb 16, 2017

I was wondering about this too. You need to make sure you use the correct objective - start with scanning and move up. Just doing that should make your life easier.

If you're generally doing well, and you had an off day - try to shake it off and move on. Good luck!

SDboyy · Feb 17, 2017

I'm in Micro now and I totally feel your pain. Labs are a nightmare although like with you the info is understandable. I have been slowly aclimating to.the scopes. What i do is focus in at the lowest level which is 4x for me using my dominate eye and the. Fiddle around with the other eye placement until i am seeing clearky from both. I am hugely left eye dominant and this has been a challenge. Once 4x is good, go thru all of the lenses focusing each with the fine knob. Once you have the baseline at 4x, everything else should be a teist or two away. But dont skip a magnification level of you will get lost. Also, if you get to 1000x or whatever your oil emulsion setting is and it is really blurry, chances are someone.has forgotten to clean the lense. I usually switch out scopes at this point if i can! Hope this helps.

Wiggly Litchi · Feb 18, 2017

This is one of those things that gets easier the more you familiarize yourself with it - be sure to ask your professor for help if you need it, or if they are busy, perhaps there's a classmate that is a little more comfortable than you are that wouldn't mind helping you out a bit?

For scope - start with the stage all the way up, and make sure you're on the scanning lens; you can slowly move the stage down with coorifice adjustment, and then fine tune it as you need to. This is just one of those things that takes a bit of practice, I hate to say 'a bit like riding a bike', but it's accurate....minus the lack of pedals.

If you're using a lab manual, make sure to thoroughly read it; we call it a 'cookbook' because it generally gives you the step-by-step breakdown, including a list of equipment you'll need to make sure you have a smooth lab experience.

Best of luck for next lab!

mindofmidwifery, ADN · Feb 19, 2017

You are NOT alone! I literally did not completely and confidently know how to use a microscope in Microbiology until we were doing our Unknown project at around week 10. We couldn't work in groups, each person had to be able to find their microbes through the microscope. Well, I was able to find one of my microbes after much adjustment of the objective sense. I had a couple points taken off because I needed help from my instructor to find my other microbe. She gave me the tip to draw a line with a colored pencil on the slide and get that focused before looking for the microbe. I swear that helped me so much. Good luck!

WCSU1987 · Feb 21, 2017

You are NOT alone! I literally did not completely and confidently know how to use a microscope in Microbiology until we were doing our Unknown project at around week 10. We couldn't work in groups, each person had to be able to find their microbes through the microscope. Well, I was able to find one of my microbes after much adjustment of the objective sense. I had a couple points taken off because I needed help from my instructor to find my other microbe. She gave me the tip to draw a line with a colored pencil on the slide and get that focused before looking for the microbe. I swear that helped me so much. Good luck!

We have an unknown for our Micro lab.

Read online a few thing's. One is look for the edge of the slide glass and center it. Then use course adjustment knob to focus it. Then move the slide till fine the microbe and then use fine adjustment to focus it. Then with every increase in magnification only use the fine adjustment.

Look with one eye not two eye's.

WCSU1987 · Feb 22, 2017

Had class last eve; As well as lab. Definitely an improvement. Watched a lot of videos and read up online tips using technology microscope. It all seemed to work out. Bit slow finished every lab, but 1 of the 5. Was able to do a positive-gram stain and able to find it on the scope.

Definitely know I looked odd, but closing one eye made a huge difference.

sroseyos · Feb 22, 2017

If you're seeing your own eyelashes when using a microscope, it sounds like your first problem is the inter-ocular distance (how far apart the two eyepieces are). Almost all microscopes have a way to adjust this; try looking through the scope with the light on and moving the eyepieces closer together or farther apart until you see just one, clear, circular field. There will probably be numbered tick marks above or between the eyepieces; it's helpful to remember "your" number once you have it so it'll be easier to re-set your scope after somebody else uses it. In terms of using the scope in general, here's a fool-proof method that my Micro professor taught us:

1. Put the slide on the stage and try to more or less center it over the place where the light will shine up.

2. Make sure that the lowest magnification lens on the revolving nose-piece is in place (this will usually be the shortest/smallest lens).

3. Turn on the light and keep it at a low setting (there should be a dial, usually near the switch that turns the light source on; there are also other ways to control the amount of light hitting the sample but you don't need to worry about them when you're just getting started).

4. Using the coorifice focus (the BIGGER/outer knobs on either side of the microscope arm), roll the stage as far UP as it goes.

5. Looking through the eyepieces, make sure you see some blur or color--if all you see is white, move the stage until you can see that your specimen's in the right place.

6. Roll the big coorifice focus knob DOWN until the specimen is in focus. Move the stage so that the are you want to zoom in on is in the center of the field.

7. Once it looks pretty clear, use the fine focus (the SMALLER/inner knob) to get the focus even sharper.

8. At this point, you can move the revolving nose piece to the next-highest magnification. Turn the light up a bit (higher magnification needs higher light). Your specimen should be pretty close to in-focus; you can sharpen it with small adjustments using the fine focus only. You can continue to the next-highest focus using the same procedure.

A couple of extra notes:

- You should never use the coorifice focus once you've moved past the first level of magnification. Even little movements with the big knob have a massive impact once you're at high magnification so you'll quickly lose the focus completely, plus you risk accidentally ramming the slide into the lens (a sure way to make your instructor go ballistic).

- Always start at the lowest magnification and work your way up, and if you get lost, reset everything to the lowest magnification and start over.

- If your microscope has an oil-immersion lens (usually the last/longest lens on the nose piece), NEVER use that lens with a slide that DOESN'T have oil on it. Conversely, never ever use oil on any of the other lenses--this can permanently ruin them.