This was a hands-on class: we spent the entire time learning how to use the microscopes and looking through them at five different types of cells on prepared slides:
- human cheek cells
- onion cells
- dicot leaf cells
- frog liver cells
- cork cells
From the drawings and notes of what we saw, we looked for patterns, and noticed that:
- there were two animal cell slides (human cheek, frog liver) and three plant cell slides (onion, dicot leaf, cork)
- the animal cells both had blobby shapes
- the plant cells had more precise linear shapes; the cork, especially, looked like gauze
- all the cells had some kind of dot in the center of their shapes
- some were colored
We also looked at loose salt crystals, to compare a non-living object to the living ones.
Observations:
Observations:
- the salt is blocks!
- the sides are very straight
- they are clear black and white, no color
- very beautiful
- no dot inside each block that we could see
About the microscopes, we observed:
Finally, we looked at online photos of electron microscope images, including bed bugs, human hair, head lice (ewww), ticks, and salt (wow).
- it's difficult to find the object in the slide, and to focus
- sometimes a lesser magnification allows you to see more than a greater magnification
Finally, we looked at online photos of electron microscope images, including bed bugs, human hair, head lice (ewww), ticks, and salt (wow).
Questions that arose:
- what is the pointer for, that we see in every slide?
- what are the dots in the middle of the cells?
- why couldn't we all see the dots all of the time?
- was the red color of the onion cell natural or was that a dye?
- what is a dicot leaf?
- what is a cork tree like?
- why are the plant cells so regular?
- why no dots in the salt?
HOMEWORK: Read the two handouts about life processes (a review from the previous class):
Other handouts from class today:
Good class!
- From PBS Learning Media, "Is It Alive?"
- Life Processes from the BBC
Other handouts from class today:
- Discovering Cells
- Instructions when working with prepared microscope slides
- Microscopic Observations (for taking and drawing notes)
Good class!