1. Attach three electrode tabs to your dominant arm, as shown in the picture on the left.  To determine the correct location of the electrodes set your arm on the bench with the palm of your hand facing out.  Two tabs should be placed on the forearm, 5 cm and 10 cm from the lateral epicondyle along an imaginary line connecting the epicondyle and the middle finger. A third electrode tab should be placed on the upper arm.

2. Connect the EKG clips to the electrode tabs.  The red and green leads are interchangeable for this experiment. The black clip should be connected to the tab on the upper arm.  Face your lab bench so that your arm is resting on the bench surface

                      Performing the EMG   

3. Click on the data collection button (clock) beside the collect button. Change the experiment length from 25 sec to 40 sec.

4. Place your relaxed hand on the weight, with your palm facing downward. Click collect to begin data collection. If your graph has a stable baseline, click stop and continue to the next step. If your graph has an unstable baseline, click stop and repeat data collection until you have obtained a stable baseline for approximately 5 s.

5. Collect data to examine the effect of lifting a weight using your extensor muscles:
a.  Click collect. 
b.  After recording a stable baseline for 5 s, grip the weight with your  hand. Using only the action of your wrist, lift the weight to a height of 5–   10 cm off the surface of the table. It is very important that you do not use any part of your arm to lift the weight other than your wrist. Hold this position for 5 s.
c.  Gently lower the weight onto the table and rest for 5 s.
d.  Repeat the extension and relaxation action for two more full cycles of 5 sec with the hand cocked, followed by 5 sec with the hand in a resting position.

6. Record the minimum and maximum values displayed in Table 2, rounding to the nearest 0.01 mV (see diagram below).

To determine the minimum and maximum potential (mV) values, click and drag to highlight an interval in the first 5 s of data collected that does not include any extraneous peaks.  Only include an area that has peaks that look about average for that section (see diagram above).  Large peaks at the beginning of each interval are noise and should not be included.  Click the Statistics button. Record the minimum and maximum values displayed in Table 2, rounding to the nearest 0.01 mV.  Drag the brackets to highlight average portions of each of the next 5 s intervals until you reach 30 s  (5–10 s, 10–15 s, 15–20 s etc). Record the minimum and maximum values displayed in the Statistics boxes in Table 2.

Microscope Tutorial

Images from the manual:

smooth muscle tissue

Skeletal muscle tissue

Cardiac muscle tissue

Practice data (NOT required for the problem set):
 

Example of contingency test from a previous lab:
The number of individuals that were colonized and were not colonized by ants were counted for two different species of Acacias.  Type of data: counts.  Comparison: whether an outcome (being colonized by ants) was more closely associated with one group (Acacia species A) than another (Acacia species B).  Appropriate test: chi-squared contingency test.  Null hypothesis: there is no association between being colonized and being a member of species A (or B).
ant-acacia-association.jmp