Position your slide underneath the lens, center the specimen under the center of the lens, set the lens to low before turning it on. Focus on the specimen using the coarse knob on low power. Keep the specimen centered and switch to high power
owly to avoid damage to the lens, slide or specimen. Hold the side of the slide when you switch to high power to ensure that it stays in place. Use ONLY the fine focus knob slightly in either direction to focus on high power.
Get a clean flat glass slide to prepare a wet mount, suck up a few drops of the liquid specimen in a dropper, place one drop of the liquid on the center of the slide, carefully pick up a cover slip and grasp the cover slip by its outer edge. Place the cover slip on top of the slide at a 45 degree angle and let it drop, making sure it matches up with the edges of the slide.
Prepare the wet mount as normally, use an eyedropper to collect a drop of two of the stain. Place a single drop of stain on the very outer edger of the cover slip on top of your slide. Tear off a small piece of a paper towel and set the paper towel against the opposite end of the cover slip as close to the edge as possible. Wait until the stain has been pulled in between the coverslip and the slide. The stain should completely cover the specimen. After that, remove the piece of paper towel and place the slide on the microscope. Clean the slide and cover slip after finishing the examination.
This lab affected my microscope skills, by refreshing my memory on which knob does what, the microscopes different power levels, how to stain a slide and how to prepare a wet mount. It just basically re-taught me what I had previously learned in biology classes from middle school and freshman year.
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