Category: Science 9

On April 23rd we did a project involving bugs. My group got to take a look at a spider while some other groups were looking at other bugs such as: flies, ants and cockroaches. For the first part of the project, we were looking at the spider up close using the magnifying glass. We were going to use the compound microscope to zoom in on it but, that would mean we would have to put it on a glass slide to hold the spider in place and there was no way I was touching that spider. So, after examining the spider close up we saw some interesting things and wrote it down on our paper.

I thought I was the spider moving but I guess I was just being paranoid so I just forgot about it. We then put the spider in a test tube just to keep it in there so we didn’t lose it and then we put a rubber stopper on top of the tube to make sure it didn’t fall out. When I came back to our station I saw some cool looking chemicals on the counter across from the table I was sitting at. On the test tube rack, there were two symbols. One of them was a warning for the chemical being flammable and the other one was a caution for poison.

I wondered what those chemicals were used for, they looked cool and had some nice bright colors. I then proceeded to mess around with the spider, I took the rubber stopper off the top and was just taking a good look at it. I then brought the open side of the test tube up to my face and that’s when everything went wrong. When I brought the test tube closer, the spider started slowly moving. I reach for the rubber stopper in panic but I couldn’t remember where I left it.

After taking too long the spider eventually started climbing out of the tube then started climbing up my arm. I hated spiders and I was so afraid of them so I started bumping into a bunch of things. I ended up bumping into the test tube rack that had the warning of the chemicals being flammable! A little bit of the chemical got onto my arm and it was burning a little, I didn’t even bother washing off because now there was a fire on the counter! I quickly ran and got the fire extinguisher and quickly put out the fire.

Mr. Robinson comes back from the washroom and sees me putting out the fire and quickly comes to help. After the fire was extinguished, I didn’t even mention to him that a bit of those chemicals got onto the skin of my arm. I explained to him what happened and he understood the situation. We then cleaned up the mess I made and everything was okay now. I am never taking a close look at any bugs again.