1/ Cleaning your slides prior to performing the smear technique is an important step. Explain 3 problems that might arise if your slides are not clean.
2/ Why are thick/ dense smears less likely to provide a good smear preparation for microscopic evaluation?
3/ Why is it essential that your smears be air-dried before attempting to heat-fix?
4/ Discuss problems that might arise when observing your prepared slides if you:
Didn’t heat-fix the sample?
Overheat the smear?
5/ How do basic/ positive stains differ from acidic/ negative stains in regards to their interaction with the specimen?
6/ Why can simple staining techniques only tell us morphological characteristics of microorganisms?
7/ How might you troubleshoot your microscopic field of view if your preparation was too dense?
8/ The history of biological staining is very diverse. The dye Carbol Fucshin used in this lab is also used in the textile industry to dye materials. How then do “biological stains” differ from compounds that are simply “imparting color?”
