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3.5: Viewing Prepared Slides

  • Page ID
    133633
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    In many biology classes, specimens are preserved onto slides and can be used over and over again. These preserved slides are professionally prepared and can have a variety of specimens on them -- from simple onion cells to thin slivers of a spinal cord. When looking at these slides, you should see a label identifying what the specimen is and how it was prepared. Slides can be prepared in a variety of ways including:

    • Whole mount (w.m.) -- the entire specimen without cuts
    • Longitudinal section (l.s) -- specimen is cut parallel to specimen’s length
    • Cross section (c.s.) -- also called a transverse section (t.s.), specimen is cut perpendicular to specimen’s length

    When using prepared slides, use caution and common courtesy. Prepared slides can be fragile so keep them on the microscope when in use and in the slide box when done. When sharing slide boxes, only take one slide to your desk at a time so that your labmates can access them too.

    Now let’s put our skills we gained in exercises 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 in action. If you get stuck, look to these exercises and your instructor for help.

    Prepared Slide #1 -- Onion Cells

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    Prepared Slide #2 -- Blood Smear

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    This page titled 3.5: Viewing Prepared Slides is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Karen Marks and Valeria Hochman Adler.

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