Washing samples:

1. Put on a lab coat to avoid getting clothing fibers in the sample and safety glasses to protect your eyes from forams
2. Get a 63 micrometers sieve and place it in the sink.
3. Pour the wet sample that is in the beaker in the sieve that is in the sink.
4. If part of the sample remains in the beaker use the nozzle with a gentle spray of deionized water , that is strong enough to remove the sample but not too strong enough that the sample will go everywhere.
5. To test the strength of the nozzle, turn it on AWAY from the sample and test on your hand, it feels too strong then turn it down until it feels gentle enough almost like a slight tickle.
6. Using the nozzle wash the sample in the sieve for thirty minutes.
7. While washing move the nozzle slowly in circular or up and down motion to break up the clay clumps.
8. To test if the sample is clean after thirty minutes place the beaker under the sieve and let the water fill the beaker.
9. If the water is really cloudy add another fifteen minutes, and if it is still cloudy after that then it needs to be placed in the dry oven.
10. To remove the sample from the sieve, place a circle piece of filter paper in a funnel and put it in the same beaker you used in the beginning.
11. Using a spray bottle with Deionized water to gently remove the sample from the sieve into the filter paper.
12. After that is done, place the sample in the dry oven over night.
13. Clean sink, station, and place sieve in sieve washer.

Results:

Every foram has different pores sizes and measurements. Many forams that come from the same species have similar pore shapes, pore size, and pore spacing. But within different species they are smaller or larger, more spaced out or closely put together. Even the slightest change in acidity can make foram shells very thinner and weak. How foram shells look and how much calcium carbonate are in the shells can tell us how the climate and the acidity of the oceans millions of years of ago.

Discussions:

          Forams can tell us so much about the climate millions of years of ago and how acidic the ocean was. It is very important to know this information because it can tell us at what rate coral reefs will continue to bleach and how the levels of carbon are going up. Which contributes to global warning.