Comparing the Ameba to the Paramecium - KEY

Original Document: Comparing the Ameba to the Paramecium

Objective: In this lab you will observe a living ameba and a living paramecium. Both belong to the Kingdom Protista and are also sometimes called protozoa. Each specimen moves in a unique way. Your task is to analyze and compare the protozoan movements.

Materials: Paramecium culture, Ameba culture, microscope slides, cover slips, cotton, microscopes; (optional preserved slides)

Ameboid Movement

1. Over a 10-15 minute period, draw the ameba four times. Pay special attention to the shape.

Answers vary, look for different shaped "blobs"

2. Describe how the ameba moves.

It extends its cytoplasm and creates pseudopodia, also known as "false feet."

3. Draw the ameba and label the:
Endoplasm, Ectoplasm, Cell Membrane, Pseudopodia

Paramecium

3. Over a 10-15 minute period, draw the paramecium four times.

Answers vary, look for the same basic shape (resembles a shoe) repeated in each view.

4. Describe how the paramecium responds to the cotton fiber on the slide.

Paramecium will bounce off objects, like the fibers and reverse direction

5. Estimate how many paramecium are on your slide.

Answers vary, there could be anywhere from a handful to a 100, depends on the health of the sample.

6. Draw your paramecium.
Label: Nucleus, Oral Groove, Cell Membrane
Cilia, Contractile Vacuole

Analysis

7. Compare the movement of the paramecium to the movement of the ameba.

Ameba are slow, and will crawl along the slide by extending cytoplasm. Paramecium are much quicker, will stay the same shape and bounce off objects in their environment.

8. How are the paramecium and the ameba alike?

Both are singled celled, have a nucleus and live in water. They also contain cytoplasm and consume food (heterotrophic).

9. How are the paramecium and the ameba different?

Paramecium have cilia, ameba have pseudopodia.

10. Compare the shape of the paramecium to the shape of the ameba.

The ameba changes shape, the paramecium stays in the same shape and looks like a shoe.