Microscope Lab # 2: Animal and Plant Cells
Animal and Plant Cells
Name:
Date:
Block:
The purpose of this lab is to examine live cells and make observations through drawing, labeling and
answering questions. Gain an understanding of life at a molecular level.
Task #1: Plant Cell – Red Onion
In this activity we will be examining the cells within the epidermis of an onion plant.
Materials:
 Onion
 Knife and Cutting Board
 Tweezers
 Slide
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Cover slip
Water dropper
Compound Microscope
Procedure:
1. Cut a small piece of onion almost in half with the knife. Use tweezers to pull off the epidermis/layer of
cells from the side you have almost cut through. The purple skin is what you want.
2. Create a WET MOUNT with this thin layer of epidermis cells.
3. Examine the cell using the medium (10X) power objective lens. Draw what you see below:
Medium (10X)
LABEL: cell wall and cytoplasm.
Questions:
1. How many layers thick does the onion epidermis appear to be?
2. Can you see any green chloroplasts? Why might you not see chloroplasts in an onion?
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Microscope Lab # 2: Animal and Plant Cells
Task # 2: Prepared Animal Slide
In this activity you will examine a prepared slide of animal epithelial cells.
Materials:
 Prepared animal slide
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Compound Microscope
Procedure:
1. Place the pre-mounted animal slide cell on the stage and secure it with the stage clips.
2. Examine the animal cells on the medium (10X) power objective lens. Draw what you see below:
Medium (10X)
LABEL: nucleus, cell membrane and cytoplasm.
Hint: the large purple dots within the cells are the nucleus.
Questions:
1. What do you notice about the shape of the animal cells?
2. How do they differ from the plant epithelial cells we saw in the onion?
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Microscope Lab # 2: Animal and Plant Cells
Task # 3: Protists: Euglena and Paramecium
In this activity you will examine a live Euglena and Paramecium.
Materials:
 Euglena
 Paramecium
 Depression slides
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Cover slips
Compound microscope
Dropping pipette
Procedure:
1. You will examine euglena and paramecium in this section. Start with one specimen, once
finished repeat the process for the other.
2. Create a WET MOUNT using a depression slide instead of a regular slide. We use these so you
don’t crush your specimen.
3. Examine the specimen at the low (4X) objective lens specifically observe how they move.
4. In the circles below draw your specimen.
Paramecium (Best at medium 10X)
Euglena (Best at medium 10X)
Questions:
1. Examine the paramecium and euglena, what is the difference in how they move?
2. Paramecium and euglena are examples of protists, they share a lot of characteristics with plants
and animals but we classify them as protists. Based on your observations, why might that be?
What makes them different than plants and animals?
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Microscope Lab # 2: Animal and Plant Cells
Task # 4: Volvox green algae
Volvox are colonial algae, so they form big groups of individual cells that work together.
Materials:
 Volvox
 Compound microscope
 Depression slide
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Cover slip
Dropping pipette
Procedure:
1. Create a WET MOUNT using a depression slide with your volvox specimen.
2. Examine the volvox at the medium (10X) objective lens.
3. Draw the volvox below.
Medium (10X)
LABEL: a single volvox cell and a volvox colony.
Questions:
1. Why are volvox really green in color? (Hint: why are plants green?)
2. What might be the advantage of a volvox living in a colony vs. alone?
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Microscope Lab # 2: Animal and Plant Cells
Task # 5: Extra Slides - BONUS ROUND!!!!
If you have time look through some of the mounted bacteria, protist, fungi and animal cells. Take
some observations of slides you examine and include what magnification you are observing them at.
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Yeast: example of fungi.
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Ceratium: example of a Dinoflagellate.
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Spirogyra: example of a protist.
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Bacteria: slide containing 3 types of bacteria.
Cleaning Up
Before putting your microscope make sure to complete and check off each of the following tasks.
Check Box
Steps
Turn light off
Put stage to a lower setting
Rotate the nosepiece to the low power objective lens (4X)
Make sure there is no slide on the microscope
Wrap the power cord up on the back mounts, NOT around the microscope
Put plastic cover on the microscope
Return microscope to where it was found using the proper carrying technique
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