Letter “e” Microscope Lab
Objectives:
 Properly use and focus a microscope from a low power to a high power objective lens.
 Determine what happens to the image of a specimen in the microscope.
Materials:
 Compound Microscope
 Letter “e”
 Petri dish for drawing field of view
 Slide and cover slip
 Clear ruler
Procedure:
1. Set up your microscope on the lab table. List the 2 rules you should know when you are doing this.
2. Determine the total magnification for low and high power on your microscope. Write it in your lab
notebook.
3. Draw three circles in your lab notebook that will act as your microscopes field of view.
4. List the 3 things all microscope drawings must have on them to receive full credit.
5. Take the provided letter “e” paper and put it on the provided slide. The letter “e” should be facing you
like a normal “e” would look. Put the cover slide over the “e” so that it does not come off your slide.
6. In your first field of view, using your letter “e” slide, draw what the letter “e” looks like to the naked
eye
7. Next, make sure the nosepiece on your microscope is on low power.
8. Place the letter “e” slide on your microscope. Position the slide so that the letter “e” is facing you, as
you would read it. Using the slide clips, clip it into placed. Explain what happens to the letter “e”?
9. Using the coarse adjustment, move the stage as close to the objective without hitting it. Be sure to
watch the bottom lens as you do this. Never raise the stage while looking through the ocular lens.
10. Draw and label what the letter “e” looks like through the low power objective of the microscope.
Be sure to draw what you see, not what you think you should see.
11. Turn your objective to medium power, focus but do not draw, then turn the objective to high power.
Use only the fine adjustment knob to focus on high power. Draw and label what you see.
Analysis Questions – answer in complete sentences
1. What happens to the microscope image when you move the microscope slide towards you?
2. What happens to the image when you move the microscope slide away from you?
3. How do you move your eyepiece image to the right?
Bonus Lab: Determining the “Field of View”
Materials:
 Microscope
 Clear Plastic Ruler
Procedures:
1. Using your Microscope procedure knowledge and a plastic clear ruler, determine how many
millimeters are in the field of view under 40X, 100X, 400X.
2. Draw each field of view and write the number of millimeters.
Magnification = 40X
# of mm =________
Magnification = 100X
# of mm =____________
Magnification = 400X
# of mm =____________