Microbiology Experiment

Question: How does temperature affect the diversity and growth of protists?

Rationale: It can help people chose clean water that’s healthy. Also, it can help the population of rare
protists from dying out.

What we know from our research:

The 3 big groups of protists are Flagellum, Pseudopods, and Cilia: We used the interpretive dance we
learned in 3rd grade.

Some protists eat food and digest it internally.

Other protists digest their food outside of their bodies by secreting enzymes.

There are 60,000 different types of protists.

There are two types of slime molds: cellular and plasmodial. A slime mold has calcium inside of it. A slime
mold moves around by squeezing itself, then un-squeezing itself.

Amoebas are single celled organisms that slowly move from place to place.

Algae is a protist that people normally think is a plant.

Sites we used for research:

https://prezi.com/hhbhzshws-db/interesting-facts-about-protists/

http://www.biology4kids.com/files/micro_protozoa.html

https://study.com/academy/lesson/protists-lesson-for-kids.html

https://www.ducksters.com/science/biology/protists.ph

https://www.carolina.com/

https://www.reference.com/science/slime-molds-move--2b9f7fecb0286479

Our Hypothesis: We thought that the cold water will contain more protists because a lot of protists tend
to live in lakes and swamps, and normally the water is colder, not warmer. We thought that the room
temperature wouldn’t have any protists because there would be no actual environment.

Materials:

1. Plastic see-through jars

2. Heating pads
3. Pondwater mix from carolina.com
4. 2ml of dechlorinating solution
5. 1 gallon of water
6. Tinfoil
7. Blue tape
8. Black Markers
 9. Microscope
10. iPad with app that connects to camera
11. Special camera that connects to microscope

Steps of our experiment:

1. Order 6 pondwater mixes from Carolina.com.

2. Combine ¼ of a cup of water with each pondwater mix.
3. Evenly divide out the pondwater mix into 6 different jars.
4. Place two jars onto a heating pad in a shadowed place.
5. Place two jars into the fridge.
6. Place two jars into a shadowed area.
7. Check jars every two weeks.
8. When you do check jars: Take a few drops of the warm pondwater and put it on a slide.
9. Take a few drops of the cold pondwater and put it on a slide.
10. Take a few drops of the room-temperature pondwater and put it on a slide.
11. Place each slide under the microscope and look at each sample.
12. Take photos with a special camera that connects to an iPad app.

Our Results:

From Carolina.com, when we bought the pondwater mix, it said that bacteria would generally develop
first, and then protists would develop. We started on December 12, 2018, and we ended and got the
results on January 9, 2019.

The warm pondwater, which was 30.5° C, smells so bad it makes you want to throw up in your mouth. It
had a bunch of what looked like paramecium, which are protists, swimming around, but the cold
pondwater mix had nothing but air bubbles, no protists. Also, the warm pondwater has white foam floating
around on the top of the cup. We didn’t find many bacteria in the warm.

The room temperature pondwater, which was 20.5° C looks clear with a bunch of sticks at the bottom.
Also, it was the lightest in color. The room temperature was the only one that had some prominent
protists. It had some large Paramecium swimming around. It also had no bacteria, but it wasn’t clear
because it had some air bubbles that blocked the camera sight.

The cold pondwater, which was 9.5° Celsius was partially clear. We only found some spirilla bacteria.
Room Temperature Pondwater

Cold Pondwater
Warm Pondwater

Names of experts we contacted: (researchers in your field of study)

Conclusion

Looking at our results, our original hypothesis was incorrect. One way we know it is wrong is that we
looked through a microscope and the cold water had no paramecium. We think this happened because
the cold pondwater probably killed or prevented the protists from developing. Another way we know it is
wrong is because on the Carolina.com website, it said protists would develop best at temperature 22.5
degrees Celsius. The room temperature was the only one that has protists. It had some large
Paramecium swimming around. Another interesting thing that happened was that warm water had no
paramecium. I think this was because they might have burned or had a heat stroke. In conclusion, it turns
out that temperature can't be extreme for protists to live. If we were to do this again, two things we would
change would be the type pondwater and microscope power.