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Is a microscope a must for BFSU 2?


sassenach
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I don't know the answer, but I think you should get a microscope anyway because everyone should just have a microscope so that things like what happened here the other day where ds7 cut himself badly and began screaming that I needed to get a smear of it on a slide so he could look at it under the microscope can happen. :D But I'm guessing price may be a concern?

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We just finished BFSU2 a few weeks ago. Off the top of my head...

 

The microscope is used to demonstrate Brownian motion directly. It's a really cool experiment and shouldn't be missed. As I recall, you take whole milk and dilute it substantially with water. Put a drop on a slide, and there it is. The little globules are jiggling as if something invisible were bumping into it repeatedly. Very cool.

 

The other brilliant experiment I recall is about unicellular motility: flagellum, cilia, and amoeboid. I ordered samples of cells demonstrating these: euglena, amoeba, and I forget what the third one with the cilia is--from Carolina Bio I think. Carolina makes a big deal about aerating the solutions to keep them alive and healthy, but actually when they are good and healthy they are super fast...especially the euglena which just whiz by on the slide. Wait a day or two until they are closer to the end of their lives and the flagella are much easier to visualize as they are moving more slowly.

 

Sorry, that was TMI, but it gives you an idea of what you'll be using the microscope for. Frankly, much of this stuff is probably available on youtube, so if you really need to save money you can do with one. HTH.

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I definitely want one, but I just put together my "need to buy" list for the fall......and let's just say, "Lucy, we've got a problem!" I'll be using a bit of BFSU 1, so I can probably buy some time until maybe after Christmas.

 

A microscope for Christmas is a neat gift :)

 

Grandma got us one last year, and we'll be using it with BFSU 2 this fall.

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