Depending upon what course you are taking, you will find specialized equipment based upon the area of study. For example, in a chemistry lab you would see lots of glassware, fume hoods, etc, and in a geology lab you would find rock hammers. In this section of the lesson, you will explore some of the specialized equipment found in a Biology lab.

Equipment for Viewing Specimens

Stereo Microscope or Dissecting Microscope

Compound Microscope

Hand Lens

Look at the difference in the equipment pictured above. Each of these is used at different times in the biology class or laboratory for slightly different purposes.

Directions: Drag and drop the use to the correct piece of equipment.

Petri dish with cover

Agar or nutrient medium (red)

Inculcating loop

Inoculating loop streaking bacteria across a nutrient medium in a Petri dish.

Watch the following video to see how this equipment is used.

What did you learn? Answer the following questions about the video.

1. What other pieces of equipment did you see in the video?
   Interactive popup. Assistance may be required.

   Check Your Answer

   Bunsen burner, test tube rack, test tubes
2. Why do you think the Bunsen burner was used before collecting the bacteria on the loop?
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   Check Your Answer

   To kill any bacteria that might have been on the loop to start with so there was not cross contamination