14 Activity 1: Multichannel pipetting
In the lab, we will use a multichannel pipette and food coloring to practice pipetting accurately and reproducibly.
Each student researcher will need:
- One 200 μl multichannel micropipette (p200)
- Micropipette tips for p200
- One 96-well plate
- Wipes
- One container with water with food coloring (yellow)
- One container with water with food coloring (green)
- Tip disposal container
Getting Started
- Set your p200 multichannel pipet to 100 μl.
- Load 8 tips onto each gasket of the multichannel pipet.
- Press the plunger TO the first stop.
- Submerge all 8 tips into the water with food coloring.
- With thumb control, release the plunger to take up liquid. Check each tip to make sure each has the same volume of liquid. Note the height of the liquid in the tips. Is it consistent?
- Align each tip with one well across one column of the 96-well plate (refer to image or the descriptions below)
a. Yellow water should go in odd numbered columns 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11.
b. Green water should go in the even numbered columns 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12.
c. If using colors other than yellow and green, make your own pattern.
7. Press the plunger THROUGH the first stop, raise your tips up out of the plate, and then you may release your plunger with thumb control.
8. Have each researcher do two to three columns of the plate to practice.
