Oct 2, 20212 min read

Mystery Microscope Slides

I have been very fortunate to always work in schools with a pretty good selection of prepared microscope slides and pulling out a few which connect to a particular lesson is one of my favourite ways to help students maintain & develop their microscopy skills . I use slides which show Sickle Cell Anemia during my genetics unit, I pull out leaf cross sections while teaching photosynthesis & a duodenum cross section during digestion , there are almost always opportunities to include microscopy into every Biology unit.

Mixing it up with Mystery Slides!

Botany Mystery Microscope Slides ready to go!

A great way to increase student engagement as well as assess students' ability to identify previously seen structures under the microscope. The image above is from a Botany mystery slide activity I did with my G12 IBDP Biology students after they spent several lessons studying different plant structures, both in images and under the microscope. They had to pull a slide of each type and answer questions about it, I allowed them to use their notes, textbook and even the internet for this activity. Some of the questions were asking about if the cross section was a stem or a root, or if the plant was a monocot or a dicot etc. I also had the students sketch each specimen, gotta work on those biological drawing skills!

A little Prep goes a Long Way!

This activity doesn't take much prep, it all depends on which kinds of prepared slides you have in your school. I had sets of six slides for most of the different plant structures we examined, so I pulled them & covered them with a post-it note. A good tip is to make sure you do tape the paper on solidly so students won't be tempted to peek , but don't put any tape on the specimen. You can choose to make a worksheet to accompany this, like I did or just post some questions on the board. It's up to you! I really enjoyed this activity and the students had a great opportunity to really test their skills and knowledge peek , but don't put any tape on the specimen. You can choose to make a worksheet to accompany this, like I did or just post some questions on the board. It's up to you! I really enjoyed this activity and the students had a great opportunity to really test their skills and knowledge. It was a hit all around & I will definitely do it again!