Science 7

• A microscope is a portable but very powerful tool in the field of Biology that allows us to capture naked images of living things bared to its tiniest cell and provides us with essential data about the existence of things with life.
• The COVID-19 pandemic introduces us to a new strain of virus.
• Through the microscope, have you ever seen a COVID-19 virus even in pictures? And how do scientists able to capture these images?
• In the previous module, you were able to learn about the parts and functions of the microscope, including a clear understanding of how each part works.
• The common microscope generally used in classroom setting is the Compound Microscope.
• Every part of the microscope serves specific purposes.
• If you want to focus the specimen under high and lower magnification or even using the oil immersion, then you may opt to use the Fine Adjustment Knob.
• If you are only using the low power magnification, you preferably use the Coarse Adjustment Knob.
• A specimen seen under the compound microscope using an Eyepiece with 5x magnification and an Objective with 40x (HPO) is magnified 200x its actual size when seen under the microscope.
• The Eyepiece of a compound microscope has 5x magnification and the Objective has 40x magnification, resulting in 200x magnification when the specimen is viewed under the microscope.
• In an illustrative manner, if the Eyepiece has 5x magnification and the Objective has 40x magnification, then 5 x 40 = 200x magnification.
• The magnification power of a microscope is represented as x, where x in 5x or 40x stands for ( times ).
• The Objective is a very essential part in focusing a specimen.
• In this module, we will be exploring the steps in focusing specimens under the microscope as well as how to compute for the magnification of the specimens under it.
• The images as seen in the microscope compared to the actual images seen with the unaided eyes are different.
• To view a specimen, place the glass slide containing the specimen on the stage directly above its center hole and set the stage clip in place, look through the eyepiece and adjust the mirror to find the Field of View of the microscope, adjust the diaphragm when the field of view is too bright, carefully lower the body tube by turning the coarse adjustment knob until the end of the LPO almost touches the cover slip, look through the eyepiece again, slowly turn the coarse or fine adjustment knob upward to raise the objective until the letter 'e' appears, and continue adjusting until you can see
• The steps in focusing specimen using a compound microscope are: determine the specimen you are going to focus on, adjust the focus, adjust the stage, adjust the lighting, adjust the condenser, adjust the objective, and adjust the eyepiece.
• To prepare a wet mount, cut out letter 'e' from a newspaper clipping, place it in a glass slide, add a drop of water using a dropper or cotton ball, position the cover slip 45° with one side touching the edge of the water, and slowly lower the cover slip until it covers the specimen.
• The mirror in focusing a specimen under the microscope is important and its role is to reflect light to the eyepiece.
• When using a plant or animal specimen, make sure to slice the sample thinly in order for light to pass through the specimen.
• The Eyepiece and Objectives of a microscope have numeric inscriptions that affect the magnification of a specimen.
• A Field of View is the bright circle of light under the microscope.
• The steps in focusing specimen using a compound microscope are easy to follow: determine the specimen you are going to focus on, adjust the focus, adjust the stage, adjust the lighting, adjust the condenser, adjust the objective, and adjust the eyepiece.
• A specimen is a sample part of any material such as plant, animal or even paper and mineral for examination under the microscope.
• Imagining what a COVID-19 virus looked like is a good way to visualize how it looks like using a microscope.
• The Adjustment Knob for Low Power Objective (LPO), High Power Objective (HPO), and Oil Immersion Objective (OI) are different.
• Familiarity of the parts and function of a compound microscope is necessary for proper utilization of its efficiency.
• When moving the slide to the left or right, up or down, the image moves in the opposite direction.
• Focusing specimen using a compound microscope involves generating magnified images.
• Look at the specimen in a normal microscope position and use Oil Immersion Objective in order to focus clearly the specimen.
• The numeric inscription written in the eyepiece and objective tells us how many times the microscope actually magnifies an object.
• The specimen increases its area by the square of its magnification.
• The ability to enlarge an image of the object’s length in one direction but not changing the actual size is called magnification.
• When viewing wet specimen such as sample of pond water or the like, tilting of the microscope is neither advisable nor using of LPO or HPO.
• Do not use direct sunlight as a source to view a specimen because it can permanently damage the retina of the eyes.
• In using a microscope in the science laboratory, always handle the microscope carefully.
• The object’s magnification can be computed as multiplying the magnification of the inscription in the Eyepiece to the magnification inscription of the Objective.
• The microscope is used to enlarge images from its actual size in order to see internal structures of living things.
• The direction of the stage knob when turned is to the right, to the left, to the left, to the right, upward, downward, downward, upward.
• When looking at the microscope, the letter “e” appears inverted as seen in figure 4.