Download Plant and Animal Cells Under the Microscope File

Plant and Animal Cells Under the Microscope
Use of a Microscope:
1. Turn on the microscope by hitting the power button in the back of the stand
2. Place your slide by pulling back on the stage clip lever and letting the clip go holding your slide in
place
3. Make sure the smallest objective lens (4 with the red stripe) is connected to the body tube by
swiveling the nosepiece – hear and feel it click into place
4. Look into your ocular lens and begin focusing with the coarse focus nob
5. When the image starts to resolve you can switch to the fine focus nob to get a crisp image
6. Look at the whole of your slide by using the two nobs located below your stage.
7. Find something you want to look at close up and make sure it’s centered in your field of vision
(the black arrow you see should point right at your specimen)
8. Switch to the next power (10 – yellow stripe)
9. Refocus with the fine focus nob
10. Recenter on your slide
11. Switch to the highest power (40 – blue stripe)
12. Refocus
Cheek Cells:
Methods:
1. Scrape the inside of your cheek with the blunt end of a toothpick in a circular motion for
about 10 seconds
2. Get it kind of juicy
3. Swirl the end of the toothpick on to your slide to transfer your saliva
4. Drop one drop of bromothymol blue onto your slide in your pool of saliva
5. Place your slip cover over the stained saliva
a. Place one edge first and smear it to avoid air bubbles
6. Draw a cheek cell under 400x magnification
a. Include a figure legend
b. Label
i. Cell membrane
ii. Nucleus
iii. Cytoplasm
Elodea Cells:
Methods:
1. Cut a small sample of the Elodea and place it in the center of your slide
2. Place a drop or two of water over your sample
3. Place your cover slip over your sample being sure to “smear” out the sample as you
place it
7. Draw elodea tissue under 100x magnification
a. Include a figure legend
b. Label
i. Cell wall
ii. cytoplasm
8. Draw an elodea cell under 400x magnification
a. Include a figure legend
b. Label
i. Cell membrane
ii. Cell Wall
iii. Chloroplast
iv. Cytoplasm
Guard Cells and Stomata:
1. From the underside of the leaf collect a piece of cuticle
a. Break the top part of the leaf and peel the pieces away
b. Purplish tissue that extends from the underside of the leaf is cuticle
c. You only need a small sample
2. Place a drop of water on your sample
3. Place your cover slip at an angle to push out air bubbles
4. Draw a pair of guard cells under 400x magnification
a. Include a figure legend that indicates if the guard cells are open or closed
b. Label
i. Cell membrane
ii. Cell Wall
iii. Cytoplasm
iv. Stoma
5. On the back of your paper write a sentence or two about if the plant that you just
grabbed the cuticle from had full vacuoles or not. Give evidence for your conclusion.