Looking At Sugar And Salt Crystals Under The Kids Compound Microscope
One of the simplest experiments that can be done using a student’s compound light microscope is using table salt or sugar crystals as samples. Teachers can use this as one of the simple activities that students and children can do with their educational biological kids microscopes.
To start examining sugar or salt crystals under a compound microscope, we need to obtain the materials needed first. Sugar and table salt can easily be found in the kitchen. It can also be bought at the nearest grocery stores or market.
The first thing to do is to dissolve some sugar or salt in a hot water. It’s alright to have as little water as possible so that there won’t be any sugar or salt wasted. Make sure to dissolve each separately and label it so that you will know what each will look like under the student compound kids microscope.
Dissolve the salt and sugar in hot water until you can no longer melt the crystals. Get a drop or two from each solution and transfer them to separate blank microscope slides. Afterwards, leave the microscopic slide with the solutions sit in the open until the water evaporates. You will know this when you see some crystals on the slides and there is no more liquid present.
Let us examine the table salt crystals first. If we look at the salt crystals under the compound binocular microscope, we will see that the crystals look like cubes and are separate from each other. However, we may also see some crystals that do not look like cubes. It is possible this is because there are impurities in the water or the salt itself. We may also see coloured crystals if we use salt water. If pure salt is used, then you can definitely see perfect cubes when viewing through the eyepieces of the child’s compound microscope.
Looking at sugar crystals under a student microscope may need a longer time. Sugar does not crystallize at once if it is saturated in water. It must be set aside for at least a day so that the crystals will form or else you will only see an unclear arrangement. Under a binocular compound microscope, sugar crystals have oblong and slanted ends.
Table salt and sugar are not the only crystals that can be found at home and looked though under student microscopes. There are also a lot of common water soluble specimens that can be found at home or at the nearest store. Some of these are alum, washing soda, powdered juice, Epsom salts, copper sulphate and iron sulphate to name a few.
A fun and enjoyable science activity using educational and child compound microscopes will be identifying what kind of forms these microscopic crystals will have. Aside from the cube-shaped crystals of salts, some may look like hexagons or have feathery patterns. Students in a science class will enjoy viewing these crystalline structures as part of a wholesome learning experience.
If we dissolve copper sulphate in gelatine, it will form beautiful fern-like patterns. You only need to add the copper sulphate when the gelatine has already dissolved in warm water. Copper sulphate under a compound microscope has fern-like patterns on the glass slide.
If you look at alum under a biological science microscope, you will see a form with eight sides. This is called octahedron. Potassium permanganate, found in disinfectants, deodorizers and dyes, can be seen in rhombic form.
It will be a fun as well as educational science activity if teachers will assign their kid students to draw the forms of the crystals of different solutions that can be found at home or in the local hardware store. This type of science experiment with the kids compound microscope is something that will be long remembered by students in their learning experience.
