Leech Neurophysiology Lab

We have been working on a Leech Neurophysiology Lab in class on our computers. Like Our teacher said, it would be nice to actually do this in class, but all the equipment and the things we need would be way too expensive. It was pretty cool to do it on the computer, because even with the virtual one it seemed real. The things we did with all the equipment was what we would have done hands on if we would have had everything that we needed.
Equipment:

• Leech Tank
• Dissection tank
• Scalpel
• pins
• scissors
• forceps
• probe
• 20% ethanol
• Leech tongs
• Dissection Microscope
• Micromanipulator
• Oscilloscope
• A leech
• feather

What we pretty much did in this lab was dissect a leech all the way down to look at it's nervous cells that are responsible for collecting touch information from it's skin to it's brain.
When we first started the lab, it introduced all the supplies that we would be using at first. I then inserted the leech tongs into the beaker, and anesthetize the leech. I then stretched the leech out and pinned both the anterior and posterior sides down. Then i got the scalpel and cut the leech open, got the forceps, and opened the incision. Next step was to grab the probe and remove the guts and connective tissues. I then put it under the microscope, made an incision with the scalpel and removed it with the forceps. I then got the scalpel again and cut a section, and pinned it down to the mat. We then looked at it under the microscope and made another incision in the sinus, then another. ( It looked ind of like an X after we were done making incisions). I then clicked on the micro manipulator, probed a cell, then i injected the cell with dye and looked at it underneath the UV switch.

This is the graph that tells you what your cell is at the end of the lab:

This is a link to the virtual lab!
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/vlabs/neurophysiology/index.html