Quality Biology Labs WITHOUT Microscope

[ALB]

I have read through all the threads I could find and keep finding the same information.  We will buy the Advanced Dissection Kit from Home Science Tools, but how can we get some really awesome and helpful labs done inexpensively for the first half of the year.  I don't want to invest in a microscope because my children have vision problems that would pretty much make it useless unless we got a really expensive one that I can't afford.

I keep looking at the various kits at HST, even the chemistry ones, and can't decide what would be the most helpful and useful.  I'd like to keep it at less than $75 since I'll be purchasing the dissection kit later.  Any ideas?

[Miss Tick]

I don't have a direct answer to your question, but when I got our microscope 5 years ago I got a camera with it that replaces the eyepiece so I can project the image on to a computer screen. 

[theelfqueen]

Our library has some science lab equipment available, including microscopes. You might see if you have access to resources you didnt know about? Perhaps a friend has a scope? 

[Wheres Toto]

I have a holder that was less than $10 that allows me to hold my cell phone on my microscopes and see the image on the screen.   There are also microscopes that will show the image on a computer.

I might be able to suggest some labs, but what topics are you planning to study?   For what ages?   Pinterest can be a great place to look for ideas. 

[ALB]

2 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

Our library has some science lab equipment available, including microscopes. You might see if you have access to resources you didnt know about? Perhaps a friend has a scope? 

I did call our library and they don't have anything, surprisingly since we're in a good sized city.  I do have a friend with a scope that I guess I could take advantage of.

 

[ALB]

8 minutes ago, Where's Toto? said:

I have a holder that was less than $10 that allows me to hold my cell phone on my microscopes and see the image on the screen.   There are also microscopes that will show the image on a computer.

I might be able to suggest some labs, but what topics are you planning to study?   For what ages?   Pinterest can be a great place to look for ideas. 

I really don't have the funds to buy a microscope right now, especially since I still need the dissection kit and would also have to buy all the slides and things.  This is for my daughter's biology class.  We're using the Miller Levine textbook and I want to do enough labs to call it a lab science.  She's especially interested in dissection and I do have a friend that has a microscope that we could use a couple of times.  I'm looking for an economical kit that will allow us to do many different experiments for the first half of the book (cells, DNA, stuff like that).  I can figure out the plant ones pretty easily.

[Lori D.]

You might search for virtual microscope labs. Here is a link to get you started: Michegan Medical School: Virtual Microscope Slide List.

[Wheres Toto]

Non microscope labs I've done:

Extract DNA from strawberries
Build Food Webs using animal cards or plastic animals (even my high schoolers like doing it using plastic animals)
Create a dichotomous key for a group of animals
Make Winogradsky columns - I basically used these instructions.  https://www.amnh.org/ology/features/how-to-make-a-winogradsky-column/  Very cool to look at samples under the microscope after a few weeks.  We checked every week using flashlights and UV lights.
Grow bacteria using a kit
Comparing insulators (blubber experiment but I use thermometers and also compare liquid oils, fur, plastic and various cloths)
Hydrophobicity using hydrophobic sand when discussing the rain forest and plant adaptations
Water pollution clean-up methods when doing oceanography/marine biology or ecology
I have a set of dried invertebrate samples that include a couple starfish, sponges, sand dollars, sea bisquits, etc.
Owl pellets with recreation of the remains and use of a dichotomous key to determine what was eaten
Inheritance using M&Ms
Dissect various mushrooms, grow yeast in various conditions - hot, warm, cold, salty water, sugar water, distilled water
Sign up to do the Tomatosphere project - a blind study growing two different packets of tomato seeds, one of which went to the ISS to test the effects of space on seed growth
If you want an alternative to a worm dissection, I've done an animal behavior activity with worms - see how they react to wet/dry, white light, UV light, and smells (acetone)
There are some really cool planaria labs available
Raise various animals - butterflies, cockroaches, tadpoles/frogs