Microscope Science Project

Need to perform a science project for school? Why not see what types of things grow in pond water when it is kept at different temperatures. Find a local pond or stream and gather some water. Use a depression slide and cover slip to view the water through a high power microscope immediately after you collect it and draw some images (or capture the images if you have a digital microscope).

Now split your pond water into two separate sealed containers, such as washed out yogurt containers with lids. Place one of the containers in a warm sunny area. Put the other container in a ziplock bag (to keep your fridge clean!) and place it in the refrigerator.

After 1-2 days take a sample from each container and compare the specimens. Are there more living organisms in the warm or cold pond water? Do you notice any new specimens swimming in the pond water samples? Why do you think this is?

The image above is bacteria captured at 400x magnification. This is an example of something you might find in the pond water during your science project experiment.

Microscope Project: Mouth Smear

For today's microscope project you will need a compound high power microscope, a blank microscope slide, and a cover slip. Take a toothpick or a Q-Tip and gently swipe the inside of your cheek. Place the specimen from inside your mouth on the blank microscope slide and cover with a cover slip.

Place the slide you just prepared under the microscope and start at the lowest (40x) magnification. Once you get the specimen in focus, move up to 100x and then 400x magnification.

Human Cheek Cells, captured at 400x magnification.

Draw a picture of what you see through the microscope. Can you identify the individual cells from your cheek? Identify the nucleus of these cells as well. Notice the different number of cells you can see in your field of view at 100x versus 400x magnification.

Microscope Project: salt and sugar

For this activity you will need some items found in the kitchen. Gather some table salt, sugar (try sugar in the raw as well as refined white sugar), pepper and any other colorful spices. You may even want to gather a few oats or dried beans such as lentils or black beans to look at.

You may also want to look at some breakfast cereal flakes. Try a few different shapes and sizes.

You will need a low power (stereo) microscope such as the National Optical 446TBL microscope shown below.
Start with the smaller granular items. Turn on the light beneath the stage and sprinkle just a few pieces of sugar on the stage. Start out at 10x magnification and then move up higher to 30x magnification. How do the grains of salt differ from the granules of sugar?

Draw a few images of the differences between the salt and the sugar.

Bacteria Microscope Project

This is a great project you can do at home or school with your microscope. You will need the following items:

compound microscope
plain yogurt (with live and active cultures)
eyedropper
well depression slide
cover slip
distilled water

Activity:
Put a small drop of yogurt into the depression on your slide (about the size of a pea). Add one drop of distilled water to the yogurt and cover with the cover slip.

Start with the microscope at the lowest magnification (40x). Locate the bacteria. If you have trouble finding it you may have placed too much on the slide - wipe a bit off so it is in a thin layer and try again. Once you locate the bacteria, move the magnification up to 100x and then 400x.

Can you identify the types of bacteria you found? Draw a picture of the bacteria and label it.

131-CLED student microscope