Lesson Plan Originally Created By:
Jay Vavra
Pipette Pointillism
Part of Unit: Laboratory Techniques and Safety
Lesson Plan Overview / Details
Artistic expression activities such as painting with a pipette can reinforce lab skills in a colorful way compared to more mundane procedures. The micropipette is one of the more frequently used tools in the biotech classroom or molecular biology research setting. The result of poor pipetting technique or misuse of this important instrument can lead to invalid experimental results and/or loss of expensive reagents or biomaterials. This project involves students creating pointillism paintings with the use of the micropipette.
Lesson Time
- Pipette expression lab
- 55 Minutes
Standards
California Academic Content Standards (Reinforced)
Objectives and Goals
- Students will be able to master the use of the micropipette
- Students will be able to estimate metric volume of minute amounts of liquid.
- Students will be able to select appropriate micropipette for specific volumes to be added.
Activities in this Lesson
- Pipette Expression Lab - Lab / Shop
Students will create a work of art with mechanical micropipettes. The exercise can be conducted over 1 or 2 periods. After an introduction to the basic mechanism of a pipette students will use colored water or a set of dyes for making their pontillism painting(s).
This activity can be combined with a pipette calibration exercise if microbalances are limiting. Half the class can be doing pipette pointillism while the other half is calibrating the pipettes using a lab microbalance.
- Pointillism Lab [ View Image ] [ Download Original ] Students conducting Pointillism lab
- Pipette Pointillism Activity [ Download ] Handout for Pipette Expression Lab
- The art of Seurat - Hooks / Set
The painting style of pointillism was made famous by George Seurat who changed modern art by introducing Neo-Impressionism. In a sense pointillism is simply a collection of dots of pure color used to make a complete image when viewed from an appropriate distance. Pointillism is similar to the process in the printing of a four color (CMYK) printer.
- Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte [ Go to Site ] Seurat's painting Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte took two years to complete and altered the direction of modern art.
- Pipette Painting Gallery - Closure
Have students display their pipette painting, or photograph of painting in a gallery for review by outside audience. The paintings may be best preserved by photographing them before the liquid dries.
- Sample Painting 1 [ View Image ] [ Download Original ]
- Sample Painting 2 [ View Image ] [ Download Original ]
Assessment
- Assessment Types:
- Demonstrations, Pointillism painting
Students will be assessed on their ability to follow instructions in order to use the micropipette to make a painting. The end product is a work of art.
Student art can be judged in the Biotech Painting Gallery as a component of the closure activity.
