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Experiment: Observing Cells and Estimating Their Size: © David Faure, Inthinking

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FULYA YALDIZ
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61 views2 pages

Experiment: Observing Cells and Estimating Their Size: © David Faure, Inthinking

Uploaded by

FULYA YALDIZ
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Experiment: Observing cells and estimating their size

Aims
 To use a microscope to observe cells, to draw and describe cells
 To estimate the size of cells
 To calculate the magnification of a diagram.

Activity 1- Making slides of biological specimens

Safety
Working with razor blades and scalpels requires caution.
Eye protection should be used and special care taken when moving around the lab.

Apparatus
 1 single sided razor blade or scalpel
 slides & cover slips (six of each)
 cork material - corks from bottles are quite tough to cut so care is needed.
 live Elodea, pondweed leaves or aquarium plants
 onion epidermis
 potato parenchyma
 tulip leaf or other leaf that can be sheared to deliver the epidermal tissue
 prepared slides of blood smears - do not use fresh blood for smears!

Method
1. Prepare slides of thin slices of cork and look at them through the microscope.
What excited Hooke so much?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Prepare slies of any other material and view this through the microscope. For each slide
make a simple biological drawing of what you see and write a description, using labels if
possible.

Examples include:

o live Elodea or pondweed leaf with a drop of water and cover with a cover slip.
o onion epidermis- use the inner curved papery thin epidermis, stain with a drop of
iodine solution and cover with a cover slip.

© David Faure, InThinking thinkib.net/biology


1
Experiment: Observing cells and estimating their size

o potato- try to slice thin enough sections with scalpels, stain with a drop of iodine
solution and cover with a cover slip.
o tulip leaf epidermis- tear the leaves so that you separate the thin transparent
epidermis from the mesophyll tissue. Lay the epidermis on a slide with a drop of
water and cover with a cover slip.
o prepared slides of
1. blood smears
2. stem and root tissues
3. muscle cells

3. Record your observations in the form of annotated biological diagrams. Include notes about

o relative size / or magnification


o cell shapes
o colours
o items inside the cell ( Elodea, potato)

Activity 2: Estimating the size of the cells


Field of view (FOV) estimates

1. Measure the diameter of the FOV with a transparent mm ruler.

Note: The size of the x40 objective can be estimated, usually lens will not let the ruler
pass underneath. Measure the diameter of the x10 objective. The diameter of the x40
objective would be 4 times less, so divide by 4.

2. Count the number of cell lengths that fill the diameter.

3. Divide the number of cells by the diameter to arrive at the


estimated length of the average cell. This works well for
plant tissues such as leaves of Elodea or with blood smears.

© David Faure, InThinking thinkib.net/biology


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