We have done microscope labs in the past, but we had  really nice compound microscope to get to work with today, so it made today's lab really special. We also had a fresh pondwater sample from the TI pond. This pond is really large and healthy, so I knew we would get to see some real treasures.

First, here are the topics we covered (we followed Gregory's college lab book):

O  Proper microscope carrying method

O  Proper names for the parts of the microscope

O  Differences in parts and uses of a disecting microscope and a compound microscope.

O  Focusing on and locating specimens with all three objectives (lenses on nosepiece). we found Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial on a penny.

O  Computing total magnification (multiply the ocular and objective lens)

O  The differences and methods of dry-mount & wet mount slides.

O  The uses of a standard flat slide and a depression slide

O  Methods of pippeting a plenaria so it doesn't attach itself to the inside of the pipet. LOL

O  What Protoslo is used for. It thickens the water so the critters will stay put.

O  Water daphnias are hard to catch in a pipet. Hehehe

O  How to use a dichotomous key to identify a macroinvertabrate.

O  How to stain specimens so specific structures are visible (eyosin Y, methylene blue, iodine)

O  The kids prepared slides or looked at: onion membrane, epithelial cells, pond water critters, the immensely busy world in a drop of water from mom's English Ivy she is rooting (surprise! - there were more critters in there than in our pond water), a scab (a whim of Tim), hair, and much more.

Now, you get to enjoy some pictures of all the fun!

Shots of the kids (click on thumbnail to see it bigger):

OK, the next one needs some explaining. Melody cheerfully looked at all kinds of wiggly, "disgusting", creatures, but it was Tim's epithelial (cheek) cells that tipped her over the edge and gave everyone a good laugh.

OK, next we will share a few of the sights we got to enjoy through our microscope.

algae

algae

onion membrane stained with Eyosin Y

Baby snails still in the 'jelly'. We could see the heart beating!

Sorry, our photo of the Eyosin Y stained cheek cells didn't turn out.

We had tons of fun today!