1.2 Specimen Collection and Preservation

• Apparatus for collecting specimens
• Techniques for collecting plant and animal specimens
• Processing specimens for study
• Preserving specimens
• Ethical and safety considerations in specimen collection

• identify apparatus and materials used for collecting, processing and preserving specimens
• collect, process and preserve specimens using improvised and conventional apparatus
• appreciate the importance of collecting, processing and preserving specimens

“How do you study an organism without destroying what you are studying?”

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1. Collecting specimens
   40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
   The right tool for each organism, and how to collect without doing harm.
2. Processing and preserving specimens
   40 min · 2 practice tasks · quiz
   Making a specimen last, and keeping it recognisable while you do.
3. The collecting kit, piece by piece
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   How each collecting tool is built, what it catches, and when to reach for it.
4. Improvising collecting apparatus
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Building a working pooter, sweep net, pitfall and beating tray from materials a Kenyan school already has.
5. Techniques for collecting plants
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   How to take a plant specimen that can actually be identified, without wrecking the plant or the site.
6. Techniques for collecting animals
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   How to take insects and other invertebrates humanely, and why vertebrates stay in the field.
7. Processing specimens for study
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   The steps between catching and preserving: cleaning, sorting, relaxing, arranging, and keeping the data with the specimen.
8. Wet and dry preservation
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Choosing 70 percent ethanol or pinning and drying, and storing the result so it lasts.
9. Staining specimens
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Using iodine and methylene blue to make cell parts visible on a temporary slide.
10. Labelling and field records
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    The field notebook and the label that turn a dead organism into a scientific specimen.
11. Ethics of specimen collection
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Permission, protected species, how many to take, and when a photograph is the better specimen.
12. Safety in the field and with preservatives
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Field hazards around a Kenyan school, and how to handle ethanol, stains and formalin.
13. A school field trip: collecting in practice
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Planning, collecting and processing on the school compound so the kit, the ethics and the labels are all used together.
14. Museums, herbaria and why we preserve
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    What a reference collection is for, how the National Museums of Kenya use specimens, and why a school herbarium is worth keeping.