Meade 900X instruction manual Want to See Crystals?

Begin to start thinking like a sci- entist as you per- form your experi- ments. Observe carefully, take notes (make sure you date them), and most impor- tantly, keep your equipment and the working environ- ment clean. Experiments work best with clean and uncontaminat- ed equipment. And your parents will be appreciative of a clean work area, too.

(make sure to ask a parent for his or her permis- sion), the desk in your room....any place where

you can work undisturbed.

Label 3 of your cups: clean, flush and waste. Fill the flush cup with clean water. Next, you will obtain a specimen and make your first slide.

Want to See Crystals?

Use a measuring cup to measure one or two ounces of hot (but not boiling) water and pour it into a clean cup. Slowly add as much salt to the water as will dissolve. Stir the solution continuously while adding the salt.

Use the eye dropper (N, Fig. 1) to place one or two drops of the salt solution onto a clean slide (Fig. 4).

Allow the slide to dry. You are now finished with your tools for this experiment. Clean your tools: put the eyedropper in the flush cup, take up some water and release it into the waste cup. Do this two or three times. Stir the flush water.

The slide will dry covered with a white sub- stance. Place the slide into the microscope stage. Rotate the light source of the microscope until it turns on. Before reading any further, look through the microscope eyepiece and write down what you observe.

If you carefully performed the experiment, you will see little crystal cubes. A grain of table salt is made up of many cubes. Place one or two grains of table salt on another blank slide and compare it with the slide containing the crystal cubes.

If you wish to save your crystal slides, use a toothpick to put one or two drops of gum media (F, Fig. 1) on the slide and gently place a cover slip on top of the media (Fig. 5). Lightly tap the cover slip with a toothpick to evenly spread the media under the slip.

Attach a label to each slide and set aside for a few days until the media dries. If you don’t wish to save the slides, wash the slides in clean water and liquid soap. Rinse well and dry.

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