Without stain 1. Gently rub the inside of your cheek with a sterile swab.
2. Place a drop of water on a glass slide and then gently roll the swab over the surface to transfer the cheek cells.
3. Using a seeker, gently lower a cover slip onto the glass slide. 4. Ensure the stage is set to its lowest position. 5. Place the glass slide on the stage and secure with the clips. 6. Click the lowest power objective lens into position first.
7. Use the coarse focus wheel to get the image in rough focus and then sharpen the image by using the fine focus wheel.
8. Click the medium power objective lens into place and use fine focus only to sharpen the image. 9. Repeat step 8 with the highest power objective lens.
10. Draw labelled diagrams of what you see. With stain 1. Gently rub the inside of your cheek with a fresh sterile swab.
2. Place a drop of water on a fresh glass slide and then gently roll the swab over the surface to transfer the cheek cells.
3. Add a drop of methylene blue stain to the slide and remove any excess with tissue paper. 4. Repeat steps 3–10 of the ‘without stain’ method.
1 Cotton swab 2 Glass slide
Cotton swab
3 Methylene blue
4 Cover slip (lowered slowly) Glass slide Saliva and methylene blue :Fig. 3.9 Preparing a specimen of animal cells to view under a microscope j Go to page 3 of your Experimental Investigations Log to write up this investigation.