Page 1
EXPERIMENT MANUAL
WARNING — Science Education Set. This set contains chemicals
and/or parts that may be harmful if misused. Read cautions on
individual containers and in manual carefully. Not to be used by
children except under adult supervision.
Franckh -Kosmos Verl ags-GmbH & Co . KG, Pfizer str. 5-7, 70184 Stut tgart, Germ any | +49 (0) 711 2191-0 | ww w.kosmos. de
Thame s & Kosmos, 301 Frie ndship St., P rovidence , RI, 02903, USA | 1-800 -587-2872 | www.tha mesandkos mos.com
Thame s & Kosmos UK Ltd, G oudhurst, K ent, TN17 2QZ , U nited Kingdom | 01 580 212000 | w ww.thames andkosmos. co.uk
Page 2
SAFETY INFORMATION
Dear Parents!
WARNING!
WARNING! Parts in this kit have functional sharp points, corners, or edge s. Do not
injure yourself ! Be careful when handling the dissecting needle, when cutting
object s with the slicing tool (microtome) or other blades, and when working with
the fragile glass slides.
WARNING! Not suitable for children under 3 years. There is a risk of choking due to
small parts that can be swallowed or inhaled.
Keep away from young children!
Before starting , check the part s list to be sure that all the right pieces are contained
in the box.
Keep the packaging and instructions, as they contain important information.
Rules for Safe Experimentation
››› Prepare your materials and work area carefully before starting the experiments.
Give your self sufficient space and gather all of the things that you will need.
››› Conduct your experiments and make your observations with the microscope
slowly and deliberately, as described in the instructions.
››› Read these instructions before use, follow them and keep them for reference.
››› Do not use any equipment which has not been supplied with the set or
recommended in the instructions for use. Do not use any power supply other
than as indicated.
››› Do not eat or drink in the experimental area.
››› When foodstuffs are required by any experiment:
Before starting an experiment , separate the amount of foodstuffs required for
the experiment from the rest of the foodstuffs.
Do not replace foodstuffs in original container. Dispose of immediately.
››› Some of the recommended investigation objects might contain substances that
are slightly toxic (e.g . ivy, tulip). Therefore:
Do not allow chemicals to come into contact with the eyes or mouth.
Do not apply any substances or solutions to the body .
Wash hands after carrying out experiments.
››› Keep young children and animals away from the experimental area.
››› Store this experimental set out of reach of children under 8 years of age.
In this experiment kit,
your child will discover
the wonders of the
microcosmos. Please stand
by your child’s side during
the experiments and provide
help and support when it is
needed. The help of an adult
is particularly necessary
when using the slicing tool
or dissecting needle.
When setting up the
microscope, you should
go through the steps for
proper usage together
with your child. Please
also make sure that the
batteries are properly
inserted in the device. With
some practice, your child
will soon be conducting fun
and successful microscopy
experiments!
We wish you and your child
a lot of fun and fascinating
experimentation!
Safety for Experiments with Batteries
One button cell battery (3V, CR2032) is required and is included in the kit. Battery replacement should be super vised by
an adult. For instructions, see the inside back cover. Avoid short-circ uiting the battery. The supply terminals are not to
be short-circuited. A short circuit can cause the wires to overheat and the battery to explode . The battery is to be inserted
with the correct polarity . Press it gently into the battery compartment . Follow the instructions on the inside back cover.
Always close the battery compartment with the lid after installing the battery. Non-rechargeable batteries are not to be
recharged. They could explode! Rechargeable batteries are only to be c harged under adult supervision . Rechargeable
batteries are to be removed from the toy before being charged. Exhausted batteries are to be removed from the toy.
Dispose of used batterie s in accordance with environmental provisions, not in the household trash. Be sure not to bring
batteries into contact with coins, keys, or other metal object s. Avoid deforming the battery.
Disposal of the Battery
The battery does not belong in the household trash! In some states and countries, it is required by law to
deliver batteries and rec hargeable batteries to a local collection location or to a store. This will ensure that
they will be dispos ed of in an environmentally responsible manner. Batteries containing hazardous
substances are identified by this image or by chemical symbols (Cd = cadmium,
Hg = mercury, Pb = lead).
Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Components
This product’s electronic parts are reusable and, for the sake of protecting the environment, they should not
be thrown into the regular household trash at the end of their lifespan. Instead, they must be delivered to a
collection location for electronic waste , as indicated by the following symbol:
Please consult your local authorities for the appropriate disposal location.
Page 3
EXPERIMENT 1
Water drop as
“magnifying glass”
YOU WILL NEED
› slides, pipette
› 1 glass of tap water, 1 newspaper
HERE’S HOW
1. Use the pipette to place a drop of water on
the slide (see illustration) and carefully set
the slide on the newspaper. Now look through
the drop at the newspaper page.
2. Next, place another drop of water on the
second slide and hold this second slide above
the first one in such a way that you can look
through both water drops to the newspaper
beneath them. Can you find the optimal
distance between the two slides that will
make the writing appear even more enlarged
than when you use just one?
An experiment to help you
hit the ground running
TIP!
This is how
to use the pipette!
6 3 5 213 - 0 2 -11 0 8 16
EXPLANATION
You see the letters of the newspaper
enlarged as if by a magnifying lens. Your
microscope works by the same principle
as this “two-drop microscope.” Instead
of the water drop lens, your microscope
has plastic lenses installed in its optical
tube, and the viewed object lies on a
slide clamped in place beneath them.
Page 4
› › › KIT CONTENTS
What's in your experiment kit:
6
3
1
2
TIP !
You can use a lamp or a mirror
to illuminate the microscope.
4
7
5
8
9
Checklist: Find – Inspect – Check off
No. Description Qty. Item No.
1 Microscope 1 718326
2 Tweezers 1 700595
3 Dissecting needle 1 000208
4 Slicing tool (microtome) 1 000211
5 Pipette 1 000210
6 Sample container 1 000214
7 Slides 4 062018
8 Box of cover slips 1 062206
9 Natural fiber specimens 1 708224
(silk, cotton, wool)
10 Button cell battery (3V, CR2032) 1 -
(installed in lighting unit)
If you are missing any parts, please contact Thames &
Kosmos customer service for a replacement.
For instructions on replacing the battery, see the inside back
cover.
Any materials not included in the kit are indicated in italic
script under the “You will need” heading.
You will also need:
Water glass, plate, teaspoon,
blotting paper (or paper
towels), white paper (letter
size), newspaper, razor blade,
fabric tape, permanent marker,
cotton swabs, polystyrene
foam pieces, string, small
plastic bags, pocket knife,
plastic bag with gravel or sand,
wine cork, desk lamp.
Also, for viewing under the
microscope: Onion, elodea
waterweed, pine needle, raw
meat, hair and fabric samples,
dust sample, honey (more
precise descriptions accompany
each experiment).
Page 5
› › › CONTENTS
TIP !
You will find additional
information here: “Check It Out”
Page , , , , , ,
General Information ........................................Inside front cover
A Word to Parents ............................................. Inside front cover
An experiment to help you hit the ground running .................
What’s in your experiment kit ......................................................
Microscopy Basics .............................................................
How your new microscope works. Get started
right away with the prepared slide!
Plant Bells ............................................................
Onion skin cells and waterweed
chloroplasts in focus.
Cells in Cross Section ..............................................
Pine needles in the slicing tool and as specimens under the
microscope.
Kids First Biology Lab
Animal Cells and “Guinea Pigs” ...............................................
A size comparison between two really different animal
muscle cells types.
Detectives on the Trail ...............................................................
Fibers and hair samples reveal the perpetrator. Uncover the
house dust mite in the vacuum cleaner bag!
Gateway to the Microcosm .......................................................
Build your own algae collecting device and examine flower
pollen in honey!
Publisher’s Information .................................. Inside back cover
Page 6
CHECK IT OUT
Eyepiece lens
Eye
Light source
Actual intermediate
image plane
Intermediate lens
Objective lens
Slide
Stage
Diaphragm
Apparent
image plane
Your Microscope’s
Lenses
In your microscope, the role of the water
drops from first experiment is assumed by
convex plastic disks known as optical
lenses, located in the eyepiece and lower
down in the nosepiece. Lenses magnify the
objects that you place on the stage for
examination, so they are the most
important components in your microscope.
Handle them with care. If dust has collected
on one of the lenses, wipe it off carefully
with a soft, dry cloth.
CAUTION!
fingers, and be careful not to let the lens in the
eyepiece or nosepiece bump against other objects.
Dirtied or scratched lenses will not produce a sharp
image!
Never touch the lenses with your
TIP!
Do not use a cleaning
solution for cleaning
your microscope, since it
might damage some of
the component parts.
Ideally, hold onto the
microscope by the stand
or the base only.
Page 7
Microscopy
Basics
In this chapter, you will be getting to know the microscope and all of
its accessories. The most important parts of the microscope will be
explained, and the experiments will help you learn practical tips for
using the microscope and exploring the world of cells.
Page 8
EXPERIMENT 2
The first specimen:
“natural fibers”
YOU WILL NEED
› Microscope
› Natural fiber prepared slide
HERE’S HOW
1. Remove the transparent protective cover
from the lighting unit. The battery is already
installed in the unit. To replace the battery,
see the instructions on the inside back cover.
2. Turn the microscope’s illumination unit so
that the mirror is pointing downward. The
light will switch on automatically. The bulb’s
light will shine through an opening in the
stage, with the diaphragm letting more or
less light through depending on its size.
Always start by selecting the largest
diaphragm setting.
3. Take the prepared slide and clamp it under
the clips on the stage. The specimen should be
positioned as precisely as possible over the
center of the stage opening so it is well
illuminated by the bulb.
TIP!
Before turning the
microscope upside-down in
order to remove the lighting
unit for battery replacement
or any other reason, it’s best
to remove the eyepiece and
set it aside so that it doesn’t
accidentally fall out and get
damaged.
1: base, 2: arm,
3: illumination unit
(mirror and lamp),
4: stage with clamps and
adjustment wheel,
5: nosepiece with three
objective lenses, 6: fine
adjustment, 7: eyepiece
with turning function
7
6
2
5
4
3
1
2
Page 9
3
4. Rotate the nosepiece so that the objective
lens with the lowest magnification (96x –
144x) is above the slide. Use the fine
adjustment knob to lower the objective lens
all the way down and then gradually up
again until the image is sharp.
5. Keep rotating the nosepiece to the next two
magnification levels, using the fine
adjustment knob to sharpen the image each
time.
6. Everything OK so far? Now for the final trick:
Turn the silver sleeve around the eyepiece to
enlarge the microscope image even more!
TIP!
Always start with
the lowest
magnification in
order to get an
overview of the
object on the slide.
Microscopy Basics
TIP!
Use the adjustment wheel
on the underside of the
stage to select different de-
grees of illumination and
different color filters,
which will help you get the
sharpest image of the ob-
ject you are looking at. Ex-
periment a little!
EXPLANATION
When you look through the eyepiece, you
will first just see a blurry image, or
maybe nothing at all.
If you just see a blurry image, it is
because the two lenses (in the eyepiece
and the nosepiece) are not yet at the
optimum distance from each other. To
get a clear enlarged image, the
distance between the lenses ( just as
with the “two-drop microscope” in
the first experiment) will have to be
adjusted. To do this, slowly (!) turn
the fine adjustment knob while
looking through the eyepiece, and
you will get a clear image.
If you don’t see anything at all, it’s
probably because the specimen is
not positioned precisely beneath
the objective lens. Carefully move
the slide on the stage in order to
bring the specimen into the
correct position.
At the strongest magnif ication (500x – 750x),
NOTE!
the objective is so long that you have to be careful not
to let it hit the slide!
Page 10
CHECK IT OUT
Introducing the
Microscope Accessories
The prepared slide will be used right at the
beginning and again later on in the
detective chapter. Prepared slides are
handy because they are ready-to-use and
they can be quickly pulled out whenever
you want to compare different kinds of
samples.
The pipette is used whenever you want to
drip small amounts of water onto a slide.
On the slide, you will be placing all the
specimens that you want to study under the
microscope. When you do this, you will
cover the specimen with a cover slip in order
to get the best image and protect the
specimens from getting dirty.
Use the sharp dissecting needle (be careful!)
when you want to place or move a specimen
on the slide. The tweezers and sample
container will come in handy when you’re
searching for new specimens.
The objects that you view under the
microscope will have to be very thin in order
for enough light to be able to shine through
them. Some specimens will have to first be
cut into very thin slices so you can study
them under the microscope in cross section.
You can use the slicing tool for this, or a
razor with fabric tape over the part you
hold.
Page 11
Cotton
Microscopy Basics
NATURAL FIBERS
The prepared slide contains the
three natural fibers cotton, wool,
and silk. They are all artificially
colored. You will be able to see the
characteristic qualities of the
various fibers under the microscope.
Cotton fibers are flattened and
often twisted. They have thick edges
(cell walls). The wool (sheep’s hair)
is thick and round, hollow, and with
scaly cell walls. Silk, by contrast, is
a lot thinner with no hollow interior,
with a smooth and even surface that
makes it look similar to an artificial
fiber (such as polyester or nylon).
Silk
TIP!
You can use the mirror
for illumination instead
of the light bulb. With
the proper adjustment,
you can use it to guide
the light from your desk
lamp or the sun through
the hole in the
microscope stage.
Wool
Page 12
Plant Cells
What do all living things have in common? They breathe, they
feed themselves, they grow, they reproduce, and they consist of
tiny building blocks called cells. Most plant or animal cells are
incredibly small. To study them, you need a microscope. That’s
the only way that you can see and study all their tiny structures.
Page 13
EXPERIMENT 3
Plant Cells
Onion skin cells
under the microscope
YOU WILL NEED
› 1 Slide, 1 cover slip, pipette, tweezers
› Blotting paper (or paper towel), water, razor
blade, fabric tape, half an onion
HERE’S HOW
1. Get all the materials ready and prepare the
slide: Suction up a little water with the
pipette and place a drop on the center of the
slide.
CAUTION!
thing you have to do is to cover one of the two edges
of the blade with fabric tape. That will make the
blade a lot safer to handle. Have an adult help you
cut and apply the tape.
Razor blades are very sharp, so the first
TIP!
Some specimens are easier to see if you dye
them. It’s easy to do — try it with a drop of
red or blue ink. Let the ink get pulled under
the cover slip (as described in the tip on page
13), wait a few minutes, and then add clean
water and let it get pulled under the cover
slip. Then you can study the prepared
specimen.
2. Now use the razor blade to cut a small square
section out of the skin of the onion. Remove
the square with the tweezers and place it in
the water droplet you placed on the slide.
3. Carefully position a cover slip over the water
droplet. If there is too much water under the
cover slip, just blot up the extra water with
blotting paper or a paper towel.
2 3
EXPLANATION
You will see the elongated onion skin
cells, each one with a round cell
nucleus. In red onions, the walls and
contents of the cell are colored reddish-
purple by a natural pigment. With
white or yellow onions, the
translucent cell walls and contents
appear colorless to slightly yellow
under the microscope.
Page 14
CHECK IT OUT
Onion Skin and
Chloroplasts
An onion is composed of many layers, with
each individual layer covered by a very thin
skin. This skin has a silvery sheen and
consists of just a single layer of cells. You
can easily view this “prototypical” plant
cell under the microscope — a typical cell
with a large round cell nucleus. The living
portion of the elongated cells is surrounded
by a protective cell wall. The cytoplasm
(the substance filling the cells) of a white
onion is colorless. If you take a red onion,
you can see the deep purple cytoplasm
inside the cells.
DID YOU KNOW ?
A bacterial cell is just one thousandth of a
millimeter in size. That means that about 70
bacterial cells placed side by side will be about
as thick as a hair! At the other extreme, the egg
cell of an ostrich is a veritable giant, measuring
15 cm in length. Giant cells like that are the
exception however.
Page 15
Waterweed cells
Draparnaldia algae
Plant Cells
TIP!
Bubbles of air in the
microscope slide can
interfere with your viewing.
Almost all specimens
should lie in water in order
to yield a really good
image. You can easily get
rid of air bubbles by placing
a drop of water along one
edge of the cover slip with
the pipette, and then
holding a piece of blotting
paper or paper towel along
the opposite edge. That will
pull the drop of water under
the cover slip and the
bubbles will disappear.
Repeat if necessary…
The green color of plant cells comes
from tiny leaf-green structures that
biologists call chloroplasts. You can
very easily study the way these green
granules look and move in the elodea
“waterweed,” a common aquarium
plant. Its leaves consist of just two
layers of cells, so they can be viewed
directly under the microscope without
any preparation. If you happen to know
someone who owns an aquarium, just
ask for a little branch of waterweed. Or
you can ask for one in an aquarium or
pet supply store. Either elodea or egeria,
another closely related waterweed
species, would work.
Page 16
EXPERIMENT
Waterweed
chloroplasts
YOU WILL NEED
› 1 Slide, 1 cover slip, pipette, tweezers
› 1 Piece of blotting paper (or paper towel), 1
waterweed leaf, water
HERE’S HOW
1. Prepare the slide as already described in the
onion skin experiment (Experiment 3).
2. Use the tweezers to place the leaf in the
water droplet, and cover everything with a
cover slip.
1
TIP!
Most leaves consist of several layers of
cells. That is why you first have to cut
these specimens in order to get layer
thin enough for the light of the
microscope to penetrate. Before
practicing your cutting technique in the
next chapter, try finding other types of
plants with similarly simple tissue
structures. Moss leaves are ideal for
this. Or try “peeling off” thin layers
from the surface of other plant leaves,
such as cabbage or lettuce leaves (close
to the stalk), or from the stems of cut
flowers (e.g., tulips, gerber daisies), or
the skin of a tomato.
EXPLANATION
The individual chloroplasts are easy to
spot inside the cells. They are constantly
in motion under the bright light of the
lamp. The green chlorophyll plant
pigment is important for
manufacturing sugar and starch,
which it does with the help of sunlight.
Page 17
Cells in Cross Section
Every organ in our body has its own particular task: The heart pumps
blood through the veins, the stomach absorbs food and starts the
process of digestion, the bones support the body and the brain
controls it all. With plants, by contrast, you will find many different
structures depending on where the plant grows.
The corresponding tasks in plant bodies are handled by specialized
cell tissues. In leaves, stalks, and roots, you will discover a lively
division of labor. It is especially easy to see the various cell tissue
types in a cross section of a pine needle (or other conifer needle).
Page 18
EXPERIMENT
Pine needles,
sliced thin
YOU WILL NEED
› 1 Slide, 1 cover slip, pipette, slicing tool,
tweezers, dissecting needle
› Water, pine needle
HERE’S HOW
1. Prepare a slide and take the slicing tool out of
the box. You will see a silver razor blade
inside the slicing tool.
TIP!
You will always need a sharp
razor blade to cut your
specimens. The blade that
comes with the kit will
become dull over time. Be
absolutely sure to have an
adult help you change the
blade. Making thin slices is an
art unto itself and it requires
time and practice. It’s always
best to prepare several slices
at one time. That increases
your chances of getting a slice
of just the right thickness.
CAUTION!
The razor blade is very sharp — so you will
have to stay sharp too! The dissecting needle
is also sharp. Be careful using both tools!
3
Pine needle
(cross section)
Page 19
Cells in Cross Section
DID YOU KNOW? ?
2. Set the slicing tool on its base and turn the
handle until you can no longer see the silver
blade through the oblong openings. Insert the
pine needle through one of the slicing tool
openings.
3. Now, slowly turn the handle until the pine
needle has been completely cut through.
4. Turn the blade back again and make another
slice. Repeat these steps at least ten times,
slicing off very thin slices each time (sort of
like cutting thin salami slices).
5. Carefully take the thinnest slices with the
tweezers or the dissecting needle from the
rear side of the slicing tool and place them in
the water droplet on the slide.
Ivy shoot
(cross
section)
You can tell right off the bat if a slice
is too thick by the fact that the cover
slip will not lie flat on the slide. You
can only tell by looking through the
microscope if a slice really is thin
enough.
Corn stalk
(cross
section)
EXPLANATION
You can see a variety of tissue types in
the slices even without using a dye.
The supportive wall tissue provides a
stable structure for leaves and stalks.
Inside the walls, there are tube-like
passageways for water and
nutrients, typically also surrounded
by supportive tissue. At the very
edge, you can easily see the outer
cuticle covering composed of lots
of small cells.
Page 20
Animal Cells and
“Guinea Pigs”
Right at the beginning of the manual, we said that all living things
are composed of cells, and that there are smaller cells and larger
ones. The question remains whether large living things have bigger
cells than little ones. Or is it just that their bodies are composed of
more cells? If you can find an adult willing to serve as a “guinea pig,”
you will be able to answer these questions easily enough. Let’s
assume you are about 4 feet (1.3 meters) tall and your adult “guinea
pig” is 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall. In that case, the guinea pig’s cells
would have to be at least about one and a half times the size of
yours — assuming a larger body means larger cells!
Page 21
EXPERIMENT 6
Human cell size
comparison
YOU WILL NEED
› 2 Slides, 2 cover slips, pipette
› Water, 2 clean cotton swabs, 1 permanent
marker (for marking the slides)
HERE’S HOW
1. Use the pipette to place a drop of water on
the center of the first slide.
2. Now, applying a little bit of pressure, wipe
the inside of your cheek with a cotton swab.
3. Dip the swab in the water drop on the slide.
4. Prepare a second slide and ask your “guinea
pig” to provide a tissue sample using the
second cotton swab.
Animal Cells and “Guinea Pigs”
5. Cover both samples with cover slips and
compare the cell sizes of the two specimens
under the microscope.
EXPLANATION
When you rub the inside of your cheek
with the cotton swab, it releases cells
from the mucous membrane. These cells
are then transferred to the slide, where
you can observe them under the
microscope. And what did you find?
Are the “guinea pig’s” cells larger than
your own cheek cells, or is there no
difference?
Page 22
EXPERIMENT
Different cell jobs,
different cell shapes
YOU WILL NEED
› 2 Slides, 2 cover slips, dissecting needle,
tweezers, pipette
› Water, 1 small piece of raw meat with fat!
HERE’S HOW
1. Prepare two slides by placing a drop of water
in the center of each one with the pipette.
2. Have an adult help you cut off a lentil-sized
piece of meat and an equal-sized piece of fat.
3. Carefully maneuver these two samples into
the water droplets on the slides with the help
of the dissecting needle and the tweezers.
Remove any thick, non-transparent pieces
from the slide.
muscle fibers
Red blood cells
4. Cover both specimens with a cover slip and
observe them in turn under the microscope.
Page 23
DID YOU KNOW ?
All plant and animal cells have a
cell nucleus that contains the
genetic information (DNA). Unlike
animal cells, however, plant cells
have a solid cell wall for support.
In simple terms, you might say that
animal cells don’t need this kind of
support because that job is handled
by the skeleton or shell. Animal
cells come in various shapes and
colors, depending on the job they
perform in the body.
DNA sample
Animal Cells and “Guinea Pigs”
Fat cells in the skin
EXPLANATION
The colorless fat cells are large round or
oval shapes packed together in groups.
They are almost completely filled with
a droplet of oil — making them pure
energy stores. It’s a completely
different story with the muscle cells
from the meat. They are striped,
elongated structures that are hardly
recognizable as cells. When you raise
your arm, each one of these
individual muscle cells will shorten,
an action that draws on the energy
stored in the droplets of oil inside
the fat cells!
There are dozens of different types
of cell in our bodies, such as skin,
bone, blood, and nerve cells. Each
one of these cell types has its own
special work to do, and each
looks different from the others!
Page 24
Detectives on
the Trail
The refrigerator door is ajar… all the gummy bears have been stolen
off the birthday cake… the lemonade has been drunk up and
somebody has taken bites out of the hot dogs… a hyena must have
broken into the kitchen last night!
Who was the hungry culprit? The first thing to do is to collect any
possible pieces of evidence, such as hair or clothing fibers, from
around the scene of the crime and save them in a special sample
container. Then you will need samples from all the suspects for
comparison: Collect a hair or a thread from the pajamas of each of
the suspected perpetrators and pack each one into a separate bag
labeled with his or her name.
Page 25
EXPERIMENT
Refrigerator
detectives: Who was
the perpetrator?
YOU WILL NEED
Detectives on the Trail
› Slides, cover slips, pipette, sample container,
tweezers, “natural fibers” prepared slide
› Water, various hair and fiber samples (from
around the house), small plastic bags (resealable), 1 permanent marker (for identifying the
bags and slides)
HERE‘S HOW
1. Prepare several slides by placing a drop of
water onto the center of each one with the
pipette.
2. Set the hairs or fibers in the water droplets,
place a cover slip on top of each, and study
the samples using the smallest objective lens.
Then try the lens with medium magnification,
followed by the one with the greatest
magnification, which will let you see the fiber
structures most clearly.
Horse hair
Cat hair
Dog hair
EXPLANATION
Each fiber reveals its own unique details
under the microscope. Hairs from fabric
fibers are easy to tell apart. With a little
practice, you will be able to see the
difference between cotton fibers and
silk, or between the hairs of various
living things. The prepared slide will
give you some idea how your crime
scene samples will look under the
microscope.
Rabbit hair
Human hairs
Page 26
EXPERIMENT 9
On a “carpet safari” in
your house dust
YOU WILL NEED
› 1 Slide, 1 cover slip, pipette, tweezers
› Water, 1 sheet of white letter-size paper,
“sample” from the vacuum cleaner bag,
desk lamp, kitchen sieve
HERE’S HOW
1. Place a dust sample in a fine-meshed kitchen
sieve and shake the sieve gently over the
sheet of paper. Little dust particles and a few
mites will fall onto the sheet when you do
that.
2. House mites don’t like air that is too warm or
dry. As soon as you warm the sheet with the
desk lamp, they will escape from the dust
and gather themselves into little heaps.
3. Use the tweezers to transfer the escapees to a
drop of water on the slide, and then cover
them with a cover slip and study them under
the microscope.
House dust mite
DID YOU KNOW ?
Whether you look in the carpet, on
upholstered chairs or sofas, or in the
bed, you will find them everywhere
that dust accumulates — tiny
creatures known as dust mites. They
are essentially harmless little
animals that feed primarily on flakes
of dead skin. They really only
become a problem for those of us
who suffer from dust mite allergies.
If you are allergic, dust mite
excrement can trigger a sneezing
attack or even breathing problems.
Page 27
DID YOU KNOW?
There are researchers who claim
that the number of microorganisms
living on and inside our body is
greater than the number of all our
body’s cells. But don’t worry! Most of
these living things are not harmful to
us, and in any case our body possesses
a lot of defense mechanisms against
any microorganisms that might cause
diseases.
Detectives on the Trail
EXPLANATION
The number of legs that a dust mite has
— you can see eight of them under the
microscope — is an indication of the
close relationship between mites and
spiders. Along with scorpions, spiders,
and ticks, mites belong to a family
known as arachnids. True insects, by
contrast, have just six legs.
Page 28
Gateway to the
Microcosm
Set off on a search for more of the tiny fellow inhabitants of our
planet! Use your pipette to take water samples. Your sample
container will be just the thing to carry them! The preferred hunting
grounds for microorganisms are algae-filled pools, the edges of
ponds, rain barrels, puddles, and plant pot saucers. It’s also worth
using the dissecting needle to scrape off some rocks that have been
lying around in water for a while and collect the scrapings with a
little water in the sample container.
Water flea (Daphnia)
Page 29
EXPERIMENT 10
Gateway to the Microcosm
“Fishing in the dark”
with your biological
collecting station
YOU WILL NEED
› 4 slides, cover slips
› 2 corks (from wine bottles), pocket knife, string,
1 plastic bag filled with rocks or sand, 1 piece
of polystyrene foam, 1 permanent marker for
marking your slides
HERE’S HOW
1. Have an adult help you bore a hole through
the length of each cork and thread the string
through the holes. Secure the string with a
knot at the top and a knot below.
2. In the top cork, make two horizontal slits for
the slides and make two vertical slits in the
bottom cork, and clamp the slides in the
corks.
5. After about a week or two, bring your pond
specimen collection station home in a bucket
of pond water. Before you look at your “prey”
under the microscope, wipe one side of each
slide clean with a cloth.
6. The other side of the slide should not be
soaking wet when you view it under the
microscope. Let it dry a little before viewing.
Put one or more cover slips on the slide,
position it on the microscope stage, and begin
your observations.
3. Tie a piece of polystyrene foam to the top end
of the string to serve as a float, and tie the
sand-filled bag to the bottom end to serve as
an anchor or sinker.
4. Mark the slides with a symbol or H1/H2
(horizontal) and V1/V2 (vertical), and take
the collecting station to a pond.
Note: When constructing the
collecting station, particularly when
boring the holes for the string and
making the slits for the slides, it is
absolutely essential to have an adult
help you.
Page 30
EXPERIMENT
Volvox algae
Diatoms
EXPLANATION
In pond water, you can find a multitude
of living organisms — both plants and
animals. In the summer, lots of
organisms will have settled on the
slides within one to two weeks. A lot of
tiny water organisms will not swim
around freely in the water. They are
sedentary, meaning that they grow on
a fixed surface. Every animal or plant
species has its own preferences in this
regard. Some look for sunny,
horizontal spots, while others prefer
to settle on vertical surfaces.
Paramecium
On the surface of the water, you
will often find flower pollen, such
as pine pollen, which is spread by
the wind. In the water itself there
are all sorts of algae, single-
celled organisms, and a lot of
other aquatic organisms that can
simply be collected with the
pipette and transferred to a slide
for viewing.
Page 31
Gateway to the Microcosm
CHECK IT OUT
The World of Microbes
in Our Water Systems
The creatures living in puddles and ponds
live in all kinds of ways and in all kinds
of places. Algae usually float freely in
the water in order to get as close as
possible to the light. Water fleas paddle
themselves around and use their legs to
filter out algae and microorganisms.
Some animals can be seen with the naked
eye, while others are only visible under
the microscope.
A fearsome pond predator you might find
is a freshwater polyp called a hydra. It
has tentacles that it uses to fish for food,
and it also possesses tiny, poison-tipped
harpoons with which it shoots its prey
upon contact, wounding or killing it.
While some polyps are visible with the
naked eye — some are up to 2.5 cm long
— their prey can only be seen under the
microscope.
“Hydra” freshwater polyp
TIP!
First study the water samples
with your naked eye. A lot of
specimens, such as water fleas
and some diatoms, can easily be
seen without magnification. If
your water sample is very cloudy,
just let it sit for a while. Fine sand
or silt particles will settle to the
bottom of the sample vessel. Then
you will be able to see the freely
swimming creatures quite easily,
and you can suction them up with
the pipette and place them on
your slide for observation.
Page 32
EXPERIMENT
Hunting for pollen in a
honey sample
YOU WILL NEED
› 2 slides, 2 cover slips, pipette
› 1 water glass, 1 teaspoon, 1 flat saucer,
natural honey (ordinary quality from the
supermarket), 1 permanent marker (for
marking the slides), 1 piece of blotting paper
(or paper towel), water
HERE’S HOW
1. Get everything ready — slides, cover slips,
and all the other items. Label the slides with
the type of honey (wildflower, etc.) or the
brand name.
2. Dissolve about half a teaspoon of honey in
some water in a water glass. Then set the
spoon on the saucer.
3. Now use the pipette to suction up a little of
the solution (one sample from the bottom of
the glass, and one from higher up) and drip
the two samples onto the two slides.
4. Place a cover slip on each slide, carefully blot
up any extra liquid, and study the samples
under different levels of magnification using
the microscope’s different color filters.
5. After completing your observations, pour the
remaining honey-water mixture down the
kitchen sink drain and rinse it down with
water. Clean the pipette, slides, cover slips,
water glass, and spoon right away with some
dishwashing liquid, and place everything on
a kitchen towel to dry.
Honeycomb
Pine pollen
Page 33
Gateway to the Microcosm
1 2 3 4 5
12
10 11
Different kinds of pollen can have really
different shapes: 1 acacia, 2 cuckooflower,
2 maple tree, 4 oak tree, 5 dead nettle, 6 beech
tree, 7 chrysanthemum, 8 fir tree, 9 grass,
10 spruce, 11 dandelion, 12 hazel, 13 sunflower,
14 cow parsley, 15 pine tree, 16 buttercup,
17 heather, 18 apple tree.
Sunflower
pollen
Marigold pollen
13
14
6
15 16
Royal mallow pollen
7 8 9
17
EXPLANATION
One type of honey is often mixed
together with other types, resulting in a
mixture of different kinds of pollen from
the various field, forest, and meadow
plants that the bees feed on. Pure types
of honey are more expensive to
produce and therefore cost more. In
your honey sample, you will see
various pollen shapes and structures,
and you might even be able to check
whether the honey really does come
from the source stated on the label.
A lot of pollen grains have a
characteristic appearance, making
them easy to identify under the
microscope.
18
Page 34
CHECK IT OUT
Pollen Grains:
The Calling Cards of
Flowers
As they fly around from flower to flower,
honeybees collect the precious nectar from
which they eventually make honey. At the
same time, they also collect flower pollen
to feed the bee larvae in the hive. Have you
ever watched a bee that just visited a
flower? As it emerges from the flower, it
will often appear covered with yellow
powder from head to foot. You shouldn’t be
surprised, then, if a few of those pollen
grains end up in the honey.
Pollen grains are interesting objects to
study under a microscope. You will be able
to discover lots of different shapes and
surface structures among them. The round,
prickly pollen of a sunflower, for example,
looks completely different from the airbladder-equipped pollen grains of a pine
tree or spruce. There are scientists who
specialize in pollen, using a microscope to
study the pollen composition of all sorts of
samples — among other things, to
determine the country from which a honey
sample came.
Page 35
Kosmos Quality and Safety
More than one hundred years of expertise in publishing science e xperiment
kits stand behind ever y product that bears the Kosmos name. Kosmos
experiment kit s are designed by an experienced team of specialists and
tested with the utmost care during development and production. With
regard to product safety, these experiment kits follow European and US
safety standards, as well as our own refined proprietary safety guidelines. By
working closely with our manufacturing partners and safety testing labs, we
are able to control all stages of production. While the majority of our products
are made in Germany, all of our products, regardless of origin, follow the same
rigid quality standards.
How to Install and Replace the Battery
An adult should assist with installation or
replacement of the baery.
1. Remove the lighting unit from the microscope.
Gently pull the lighting unit holder arms (1) apart
so that the retaining pins (2) can be pushed out of
the retaining holes (3).
2. Open the lighting unit by removing the screw (4)
with a small Phillips-head screwdriver. Remove
the top half from the boom half.
3. To install a fresh baery, you need to first
remove the exhausted baery. Press the two
retaining tabs (5) slightly apart — the baery will
pop out of its holder. Replace it with a new buon
cell baery (3V, CR2032).
4. Insert the baery with the correct polarity
orientation: The (+) side faces up (6). You can refer
to the marking on the baery compartment.
5. Fit the two pieces of the lighting unit together
again and reaach the screw.
6. Reinstall the lighting unit in the holder by
pressing the pins back into the holes.
4 1
3
2
6
5
Page 36
st Ed ition
© Fra nckh-Ko smos Verlag s-GmbH & C o. KG, Pfizers trasse – , Stutt gart, Ge rmany
This wor k, includin g all its par ts, is copy right prote cted. Any us e outside th e specific lim its of the copy right law is pr ohibited an d punishabl e by law without t he consent of t he publishe r. This applies s pecifical ly to reprod uctions, t ranslatio ns,
microfi lming, and s torage and p rocessing i n electron ic systems a nd network s. We do not gua rantee tha t all materia l in
this wor k is free from o ther copyri ght or other pr otection .
Proofr eading and E diting: Nor bert Fasch ing, lekt orat text labor, Gär tringen
Conce pt and Origin al Text: Jan H aller
Projec t Directi on: Dr. Mark Bac hofer
Technic al Product D evelopmen t: Dr. Petra Mül ler
Manua l Style Guide : Atelier Bea K lenk, Ber lin
Layou t and Design: Fr iedrich Wer th, werth design, Hor b
Illust rations: a ll Friedrich Wer th, Horb; e xcept p. tr : Wolfgang Pes chke, Ostfi ldern
Manua l Photos: Ike los, p. tr; J ubalhars haw, p. ml; Ma rcos , p. t + m (all prev ious © dreams time.com) ; Frank, p.
br; ka dmy, p. bl; Ovi diu Iordach i, p. br; Ray, p. t; seewha tmitchsee ; p. tl (all prev ious © fotoli a.com); ar lindo, p.
- ; Daniel L oiselle, p. b l; Doodled ance, p. mb, p. b l; Emrah Turudu, p . tr; esem elwe, p. br; Ja cek Chabra szewski;
p. bm, p. b; James All red, p. mr; J an Rysavy, p . tl, p. , Li Ding , p. mt; Nanc y Nehring , p. m, p. mr + bl; Pa gadesign, p. tr; PeJo , p. tr; twob luedogs, p . br; Zmeel Ph otography, p. bl (all prev ious © istoc kphoto.de) ; M. Bachofer, St uttgart , p. m, p. tl + mb + bl , p. r, p. tl, p. , p. br, p. m + bl , p. m, p. m, p. b , p. bl; Dr. Gerd
Betz , Aichwald , p. br, p. br, p. , p. tl + bl, p. tr, p. m l; Stephen Dur r, London, p. mt , p. b, p. m; C . Rayhle,
Bieti gheim, p. ; F. Wert h, Horb, p. , p. ; a ll other phot os Bildarch ive MEV and Cr eativCol lection.
Packa ging Design a nd Layout : Peter Schmi dt Group GmbH , Hamburg
Packa ging Photos : Andreas K lingberg , Hamburg so wie dcb, Keeps milingU, Kutt elvaser ova, Madl en (all © shutt erstock .
com) and M . Bachofe r, Stuttgar t
The pub lisher has m ade every e ffort to id entify the o wners of the ri ghts to all ph otos used. I f there is any in stance in
which th e owners of the r ights to any p ictures ha ve not been ack nowledge d, they are a sked to infor m the publishe r
about t heir copyri ght ownersh ip so that they m ay receive th e customar y image fee .
nd Engl ish Edition © , Th ames & Kosmos , LLC, Prov idence, RI, U .S.A .
® Thame s & Kosmos is a reg istered tr ademark of T hames & Kosm os, LLC.
Editin g: Ted McGuire; A dditional G raphics a nd Layout: D an Freitas
Distr ibuted in Nor th Americ a by Thames & Ko smos, LLC . Providenc e, RI
Phone: --; Web: www.thamesandkosmos.com
Distr ibuted in Unit ed Kingdom by T hames & Kosmo s UK, LP. Goudhurs t, Kent TN QZ
Phone: ; Web: www.thamesandkosmos.co.uk
The rig ht to technic al alterat ions is rese rved.
Printed in China/ Imprimé en Chine
635213-03-100816
Loading...