Common House Fly Under A Stereo Dissecting Microscope For Kids
House flies are a common sight around us. However, they may prove to be a very educational and interesting specimen for our science experiments with a stereo dissecting microscope for kids. Teachers can make this a fun stereo microscope activity for kids and students in their high school and elementary science classes.
Before you begin, be sure to purchase your kids microscope from a reputable dealer. Parents and teachers can often find a good sale on a microscopes for children by searching the Internet. For the type of microscope needed in this experiment, be sure to buy the stereoscopic one. The other is known as the high power compound microscope, and can also be used for viewing the smallest parts of the housefly that can be placed flat on a slide.
The first thing to do is to capture a fly. In order to catch one, entomologists use a killing jar that can be bought at any scientific supply store. However, kids, students and children can also make one in their homes. All they need is a stoppered bottle with a wide mouth. It should contain a bit of cotton that is soaked in chloroform or some other less toxic chemical. Another way is to simply put the jar in the freezer for a few hours. Be sure not to squash the fly, or fine details of it’s anatomy will be destroyed and not viewable under the stereoscopic microscope.
In catching a common house fly, choose a place that has a flat surface. You must approach the house fly very quietly and when the opportune moment comes, place the uncovered bottle over the house fly. The fly will search for a way out and will instinctively fly upwards. Take this moment to put the stopper quickly back in place.
The fly takes in the fumes from the chloroform and is rendered unconscious. If it no longer shows any signs of life, carefully take it out with a pair of tweezers to proceed with the dissection process of removing one of its legs. Removing the legs of a house fly requires care. Under a kids version of a low power stereoscopic dissecting microscope, use tweezers to hold one of its legs and snip it off with a small pair of scissors. This must be done with great care so that it will not damage or be broken off at the wrong places.
Place the severed leg on the glass microscope slide and transfer it to the stereo microscope stage. Under the educational dissection kids microscope you will see that the leg is covered with thick hairs. In this hairy growth, these flies carry the unhealthy micro-organisms that bring fatal diseases to humans and animals.
Move the microscope slide so that the end part, as opposed to the severed part, of the leg is under the objective. Note that in a kids dissecting microscope, there are actually pairs of objectives, one for each eye. This is different from a kids compound light microscope in which there is a single objective that is placed over the specimen to bring it into focus. You will see a pair of claws and a little pad in-between them. This pad is called the pulvillus and it contains glandular hairs that emit a sticky fluid. This sticky fluid enables the fly to walk on a smooth surface or upside down on ceilings.
We can continue on examining the rest of the house fly’s anatomy using the stereo kids microscope. The next thing you do is to cut off the wing the way you severed its leg. Under the student’s science microscope, you will be able to see its lace-like structure. The lines are actually the fly’s veins and it divides the wing into cells. Entomologists find the distribution of these veins very significant because they use this to classify the insects. A stereoscopic microscope is the most useful tool to any entomologist in the study of and identification of insects.
As opposed to other winged insects which have two pairs of wings, the house fly only has one pair. To maintain balance or equilibrium, the fly has a pair of clubbed thread called halters instead of hind wings.
To move on with examining the house fly using a dissection microscope, we will next remove the eye. This operation requires the use of a scalpel. If you view the eye through a low power kids microscope, it will look like a miniature golf ball. Using a high powered compound microscope, you will see that it is actually divided into very small cells that are hexagonal in nature. It is estimated that the house fly’s eyes are around 4,000.
Not only entomologists can enjoy observing insects. With the use of our kids dissecting stereo microscopes, teachers and students can enjoy looking at insects during their science class or at home.
