Combined Science Biology B1 - Microscopes Required Practical

Onion Cell Microscope Required Practical

1) Prepare your slide

If you want to look at a specimen (e.g plant or animal cell) (in this case an onion cell) under a light microscope you need to put it on a microscope slide first. 

How to prepare a slide:

• Add a drop of water to the middle of a clean slide
• Cut up an onion and separate it into layers. Use  tweezers to peel off some epidermal tissues from the bottom of one of the layers
• Using the tweezers place the epidermal tissue into the water on the slide
• Add a drop of iodine solution, which will highlight objects in a cell by adding colour to them
  
• Place a cover slip on top. To do this, stand the cover slip upright on the slide, next to the water droplet. Then carefully tilt it…