The first method we tried was lightly crushing leaves onto the paper using a coin. The second method examined crushing the leaves with a mortar and pestle in an alcohol solution and using a pipette to apply the solution to the filter paper. The results were made by direct observation and comparing each method to see which best separated the different types of chlorophyll on the filter paper. Results were pretty much evenly split and the reasons for why this happened were discussed in class.
During the next class, we learned how to operate the compound light microscope so we could observe a green leaf segment and compare it to a red leaf segment. We started by observing fixed specimen slides to familiarize ourselves with proper microscope care and techniques. Then we compared the leaves and drew our observations on paper.
