directions on how to properly prepare a slide and make microscope drawings

1. Today
Compound Light Microscope
• Examine and diagram at least 1 each:
• plant cell
• To do: elodea, onion
• animal cell
• To do: your own cheek cells
• bacterial cell
• To do: Prepared slide
elodea onion
cheek bacteria

2. Tips for Producing High-quality Microscope Drawings Name: Class: Period: Date:
Phylum: Sarcodina (Drawing & labeling: 31/2 points)
Title: An Amoeba Eating Another ProtistGenus: Amoeba
Observations: The amoeba was a single cell
and seemed to move by oozing over the surface.
It was the largest organism on the slide. It would
push different parts of its body along to try and
catch other organisms. One Paramecium got
stuck as it tried to move over the slide and the
amoeba wrapped itself around the Paramecium
and engulfed it. It was rad! The Paramecium still
struggled inside the Amoeba for a long time. The
amoeba had tiny particles that flowed throughout
its cytoplasm - maybe food being digested in
vacuoles?? It was hard to see the nucleus
because everything was so transparent. The
amoeba actually "peeded" by squirting water out
of its contractile vacuole! I dropped a tiny salt
crystal in the water and the amoeba actually
turned away and seemed to shrink. What was
the salt doing to the amoeba? Will the same thing
happen with other protists??
How NOT to do a Microscope Drawing!
Phylum: ?
Genus: ?
Observations: Couldn't see much. It was
gooey-looking and looked cool. It grabbed
something. No nucleus.
(Too short, few or inaccurate details, no time
spent in thinking about what was being seen; no
analysis of what might be going on; no important
connections to vocabulary or major concepts for
the unit. Won't help much as a study aide.)

3. Pro Tips
• Coverslips
• Focusing
• Adjusting the light

4. How do we make a slide?
You will be making
3 slides
1. Onion Cells
2. Elodea Cells
3. Cheek Cells
You will be looking
at one prepared
slide
1. Bacteria Cells

5. How to make a cheek cell slide
1. Put a drop of iodine
on the slide
2. Gently scrape a
toothpick over the
inside of your cheek
3. Swirl it in the drop of
iodine to stain the
cells
4. Add a cover slip

8. Draw a cell and label
what you can

9. How to make an onion cell slide
1. Bend the onion
back against the
curve
2. Get the thin film
layer that holds
the 2 sides
together on your
slide
3. Lay it on slide.
4. Smooth it out,
add iodine +
coverslip

12. Draw a few cells and label what you can

14. How to make an elodea slide
1. Cut a small piece of
elodea leaf.
2. Lay it on the slide.
3. Add 1 drop of water +
coverslip.
4. NO STAIN

16. How to make a bacteria slide
1. It’s already made
2. The bacteria are
purple
3. They are VERY
small
4. Draw several and
label what you
can

17. You are not an expert…
• I don’t expect you to be an expert with the
scopes but…
• You need to try your best
• You need to show me when you think
you’ve got it.

18. Clean Up
• Rinse and PAT dry slides and coverslips
– DO NOT WASH PREPARED SLIDES
• Throw away onions & toothpicks
• Put microscope on low power
• Turn off microscope
• Put dust cover on microscope
• Return microscope to cupboard