Proper Microscope Drawings and Observations

okay so there should be a pretty quick

video here kind of the basics of

microscope drawings you know what's

expected and maybe some of the errors

that we can try to avoid along the way

so let's get started okay so here's our

microscope and we're gonna select to get

started the lowest magnification

possible the lowest power objective lens

and we'll look through the eyepiece of

course and when we do we're gonna see a

round view this is what's called our

field of view it's the view that you can

actually see when you're examining the

specimen now pretend we're looking at

these cells right here these were cells

taken from an onion skin an onion peel

well now we have some needs to address

so the first need I want to address is a

title tell the viewer of your drawing

your observation what the specimen is

what are you actually looking at the

next would be what is the total

magnification of the microscope remember

science is repeatable and if you have a

really interesting observation that you

are sharing the only way you're going to

be able to repeat it is if you address

what the total magnification of the

microscope is well then we have to do

our drawing an accurate depiction an

accurate drawing of what you're able to

see and then finally we can add some

labels some identifying characteristics

to help point out what it is we are

observing well let's get ready to do our

drawing here's our blank field of view

that we're gonna assume draw in and our

first decision is should we use a pen or

a pencil now this should be an easy

answer I hope we're gonna do a drawing

there is a high probability of making a

mistake

let's go ahead and select the pencil

it's cleaner if you do make a mistake it

erases better so we're gonna use a

pencil now the first thing is let's

select the title how about microscope

drawing after all we're making a

microscope drawing I hope you realize

it's too vague

maybe cells cells for a title after all

these ourselves again too vague be

specific tell the viewer what it is

you're looking at cells taken from an

onion peel

okay so next I'm gonna focus on the

magnification now earlier I said we're

gonna select the microscope for the

lowest power possible so there we go

low power well I hope you see the

problem low powers not specific tell the

viewer of your drawing what is the

actual microscope set for and in this

case pretend the lowest power was a

hundred times magnification

now that might vary depending on your

microscope you are using don't assume

that every microscope in the world has a

low power of 100 so be specific and tell

the viewer what the magnification is and

now we can you know start to focus on

the drawing now let's say prior to doing

the activity that you're doing in class

let's say you were reading through your

book and you saw a real nice diagram of

a plant cell maybe an animal cell

side-by-side for comparison and then

when you look through the microscope

should we just start to draw from our

memory all these beautiful cells that we

saw in our textbook well one of the

things I hope you'll get from this video

is no draw an accurate representation of

what you're actually seeing and so when

I look at this picture right here an

accurate representation of this picture

I'm gonna begin with my pencil and I'm

gonna do my drawing here and notice I

only filled about half the view what

about this other half well notice how

the half that I completed looks pretty

much like the half they did not complete

so because the entire field of view that

fits this pattern here I'm okay you

don't need to fill in the entire field

of view as long as you know what you did

fill in is a fair representation so we

can go ahead and just kind of leave it

like this now let's just focus on the

drawing you know from this picture I can

tell that there are really three parts

I'm gonna have to label you know one

being the cytoplasm you know cells have

an interior fluid filled space called

the cytoplasm and these are eukaryotic

plant cells taken from an onion so

there's their nucleus and

cuz these are plant cells I know the

outer boundary is the cell wall so I've

gone ahead and I've labeled neatly the

characteristics that I'm able to

identify you know let's take a moment to

focus on some errors that I've seen over

the years what if I label the cell wall

like this with an arrow well the error

would be to use the arrow straight lines

touching the cell part and the reason is

look what the arrow head it's actually

touching the cytoplasm but it's pointing

towards the line so there's a little bit

of confusion what am I actually

identifying with the arrow we can fix

that by using a straight line that's

actually touching the cell part you are

identifying another common error would

be to do this labeling the nucleus

inside of the field of view the labels

really should be on the outside for a

very simple reason whatever you include

inside of your field of view you are

claiming you can actually see underneath

the microscope you can't actually see

the word nucleus typed underneath the

microscope so a straight line touching

the nucleus off to the side of the field

of view and how about this label and the

cytoplasm like this well I hope you see

that the common mistake here would be

the criss crossing of the lines it gets

a little messy if you have to label four

or five six seven different parts when

you have you know multiple lines Criss

crossing one another so a nice straight

line to the center of the of the object

you are identifying in the cytoplasm

now I've already labeled the nucleus but

I can still show you another common

error I've seen over the years again one

of the things that I want you to focus

on is horizontal lines and horizontal

labels if you have to label four or five

six seven things and they're all written

like this it gets really sloppy and

really confusing so a nice straight line

with a nice horizontal label and and

there you have a good drawing

now remember we said earlier our

microscope was at the low power which in

this example was a hundred times

magnification let's zoom on into a

higher magnification so right now I just

have it labeled high but let's say we've

zoomed in our microscope to the highest

power possible on your particular

microscope well now we have to do

another drawing again a fair

representation of what we're seeing we

said earlier these are cells from an

onion peel no reason to change the title

now the difference being is the

magnification in this picture let's say

that this was a magnification of 400 X

400 times stronger than what the human

eye is able to see naturally well now we

have to do our drawing and so when we do

our drawing we're trying to do a fair

representation of what we're seeing and

hopefully this looks okay to you now if

I focus on labels I can start by you

know labeling horizontal lines touching

the actual part the cell wall maybe next

I can identify the cytoplasm

maybe next I can identify a nucleus now

notice inside of some of the nuclei

there's a darker spot inside the nucleus

that would be the nucleolus so with a

higher power you can see more detail

often which means there's more parts to

identify and here we have another

example of a microscope drawing so as I

wrap up this video I want to point out

one other common error that I've seen

over the years here we have a hundred

magnification onion skin cell peel on

the left and a 400 magnification of the

same specimen on the right when we do

our drawing try to draw a fair accurate

representation as we've said before same

thing with the the picture on the right

try to draw a fair accurate

representation and notice this is the

common error I've seen from time to time

is the cells virtually look identical

even though the picture on the right was

magnified 400 times in the picture on

the left only 100 so this has to be a

mistake here because again the cells

magnified

400 should appear much larger if I do a

fair representation of what I'm actually

seeing maybe it comes out looking like

this and I can clearly see more detail

on the picture to the right than the

picture to the left so try to focus on

drawing an accurate representation of

what you're seeing so I hope you found

this video helpful and thank you for

watching