Generally, section slides are very difficult to ma e without special equipment and procedures.
However, there is one common household item which can be sectioned without special equip-
ment: the common onion, made up of layers of tissue.
Peel off the very thinnest layer you can. One that is nearly transparent will ma e an ideal section.
Slice into a piece about 1/4 x 1/4 inch (7 x 7 mm). Put two drops of Eosin Dye (M, Fig. 1) in a col-
lecting vial (E, Fig. 1). Pic up the piece of onion with your tweezers and place it in the vial.
Wait for a minute or two. Remove the piece from the stain and flush it with clean water, holding
it with tweezers over the waste cup. Place it on a clean slide. To save your slide, follow the
procedure described previously in the "Want to See Crystals?" section.
Use your micro-slicer to slice off very thin slices of other types of foods.
Life Un er Glass
Fill a wide mouth jar with fresh water. Let it stand for three or four days without the lid. Then
drop a handful of dry grass and a pinch or two of dirt into the jar. Put the cap on the jar and
eep it in a place where it will receive light (but not direct sunlight).
In about five days, you may examine the water. First ma e a special slide: Using the needle or
stirring rod, ma e a ring of petroleum jelly on a clean slide. The ring should be smaller than a
cover slip and be about half as thic as a slide. Put a drop of water from the jar onto the slide
inside the ring. Use the lowest power of your microscope and write down your observations. Did
you detect any movement in the water? The movement is caused by microscopic animals. Try to
focus on one of the animals - this may not be very easy as a drop of water is li e an ocean to a
microscopic creature.
If the animals seem to be moving too fast to study or don't stay in focus for very long, soa up a
little bit of water with a corner of a paper towel.
Remember, you can ma e a specimen slide out of almost any material. When you are on a
playground, at school, in a par , or just sitting around at home, train yourself to loo at all the
material around you. Keep an eye out for what might ma e a good specimen and discover the
hidden microscopic world that surrounds us all.
Save That Sli e
To save your slides, put gum media (L, Fig. 1) on a clean dry slide and then position your
specimen in the media. Place a glass cover slip (Q, Fig. 1) over the media and attach a label. See
Fig. 6.
Note: Your microscope set contains both glass slips and statical (thin plastic) slips. Statical slips are
thin plastic sheets that will stic to your slide using static electricity. They are ideal for temporary
slides. Glass slips must be attached to the slide using gum media. Use a glass slip if you wish to
ma e a permanent slide.
Remember to Turn Off the Light Source
When you are finished observing, be sure to turn the light source around, if necessary, so that
it turns off and doesn't wear down the batteries. Remove the batteries before storing the
microscope for a month or longer.
Make a Recor of Your Experiments
Begin to start thin ing li e a scientist as you perform your experiments. Observe carefully and
ma e records of your experiments (ma e sure you date them). Record the types of specimens
you observe; their colours, shapes and patterns; how they loo through each objective; how
you prepare your slides; what tools you use; how different specimens compare with each other;
and so on. Experiment observing with all three objectives for all specimens until you get a feel
