1200X Microscope Manual
about thirty hours. Next, pour half of the
provided salt into one container and stir the
solution until the salt dissolves. Pour some of
this solution into the prawn hatchery. Place a
few eggs close to the lid. Position the hatch-
ery somewhere with plenty of light but not
in direct sunlight. The ambient temperature
should ideally hover around 77°F. As water in
the hatchery evaporates, gradually add fresh
water from the second container. After two to
three days, the eggs will hatch prawn larvae,
called nauplii.
Observe Your Brine Shrimp
The animal that hatches from the egg is
known as a nauplius larva. With the help
of a pipette, you can place a few of these
larvae on a glass slide and observe them.
The larvae will move around in the salt water
by using their hair-like appendages. Take
a few larvae from the container each day
and observe them under the microscope.
Remember to return them to their container
when you’re done observing them. In case
you’ve hatched the larvae in a hatchery, sim-
ply take off the cover of the tank and place
the tank on the stage. Depending on the
room temperature, the larvae will be mature
in 6-10 weeks. Soon, you will have raised a
whole generation of brine shrimp, which will
constantly grow in numbers.
Feed Your Brine Shrimp
Feed your brine shrimp often to keep them
alive. The best food is dry-powdered yeast.
Give the some every other day. Be careful
not to overfeed them, as doing so can cause
the water to stagnate and poison the shrimp.
If the water does begin to stagnate (you’ll
see it darkening), transfer the shrimp to a
freshwater solution.
Warning! The shrimp eggs and the shrimp
are not meant to be eaten!
Experiment 7:
Developing Bread Mold
Object: An old piece of bread
Put the bread on a slide and lightly moisten
it with water. Place the bread into a sealed
container, and keep it warm and out of harsh
light. Within a short time, black bread mold will
form. When the mold takes on a white, shiny
appearance, remove the slide from the con-
tainer and observe it with your microscope.
It will look like a complicated mass of thread,
forming the fungus body, which is called the
mycelium. Each thread is known as a hypha.
These threads, or hyphae, grow like long, slim
stacks, ending in a small, white ball, called a
sporcap. Inside the sporcap is a spore that
will eventually be released to start new colo-
nies of mold. With your microscope you can
watch this amazing transformation unfold.
Experiment 8:
Observing Stem and Root Sections
Objects:
1. A celery stalk
2. A carrot
Cut several very thin slices from the middle
of the celery (a stem) and from the middle
of the carrot (a root). Make a wet mount by
placing a drop of water on the slide. Then
put the specimen on the water-covered sli-
de, and top it with a cover slip. The water will
help support the sample. It also fills in the
space between the cover slip and the slide.
Start by viewing the specimens at the lowest
magnification and then increase the magni-
fication, for more detailed observation. What
differences are there between the stem and
the root?
Experiment 9:
Observing Cork Cells
Object: A small cork
With an adult’s supervision, cut a very thin
slice from the cork. The thinner you cut the
slice, the better you‘ll be able to observe it..
Prepare a wet mount of this cork slice as you
did with the celery and carrot in Experiment
8. When applying the cover slip over the sli-
de, the water, and the cork, make sure no
air bubbles are trapped beneath it. Begin ob-
serving the specimen with the lowest power,
and increase the magnification as desired.
The cells you see, called lenticels, are actu-
ally the air pockets that are left after the plant
material inside has died.
Experiment 10:
Observing Leaf Cells
Objects: A fresh leaf, clean and dry, without
holes or blemishes
With an adult’s supervision, cut a one-inch
-wide cross section out of the center of the
leaf, from one side of the leaf to the other.
Tightly roll that section up, starting from one
uncut edge of the leaf. The central vein of
the leaf will be in the center of the roll and not
be visible. Then cut several very thin slices
off of one end of the roll. The central vein will
be in the middle of this almost transparent
slice. You’ll be observing the cells around
that central vein. Using a droplet of water,
make a wet mount (as in Experiments 8 and
9), placing the leaf segment so that the inner
part faces up. Start with the lowest power
and gradually increase the magnification for
more detail. What do you observe about the
leaf cells?
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