Grade 7 Science (How to use a microscope)

• A microscope is a portable and very powerful tool in the field of biology that allows us to capture images of living things to its tiniest cell and provides us with essential data about the existence of things with life
• The recent pandemic introduced us to a new strain of virus the covid19
• Proper usage of a microscope

  1. Carry and transport the microscope in an upright position using both hands

  2. Set the microscope away from the edge of the working table

  3. Raise the body tube using the coarse adjustment knob before revolving the nose piece to change the magnification

  4. Adjust the diaphragm condenser and mirror to have a clearer view of the specimen

  5. Do not incline the microscope when using a wet mount

  6. Keep the lenses of the eyepiece and objectives clean
• Preparing a wet mount slide

  1. Cut out a letter e from newsprint paper

  2. Place the cutout letter e on the glass slide

  3. Put a drop of water on the cut out letter e

  4. Place a cover slip at about a 45 degree angle over the drop of water

  5. Gently lower the coverslip onto the slide

  6. Tap the cover slip gently to remove air bubbles

  7. Place the wet mount slide of the letter e on the stage of the microscope with the e facing you
• Using the microscope


  1. Align and set properly the eyepiece, the objective and the mirror of the microscope

  2. Set the desired objective in place

  3. Use the concave mirror to get the brightest focus on a specimen

  4. Control the entrance of light through the diaphragm

  5. Lower the body tube with the aid of the coarse adjustment knob

  6. Slowly raise the body tube using the coarse adjustment knob until a clear image of the specimen appears in the field of view

  7. Observe the specimen carefully by moving the slide slowly
• Inverted image


  The letter e appears inverted because of two sets of mirrors in the microscope
• Moving the stage knob to the right

  The direction of the specimen under the microscope will move to the left
• Magnification


  The ability to enlarge an image of the object's apparent size but not changing the actual physical size
• Magnification of specimen


  Magnification of eyepiece times magnification of objective
• Common magnifications of microscope lenses

  • Scanning lens: 40x
  • Low power objective: 100x
  • High power objective: 400x