Experiment: What do the cells of my body look like? Observation of cheek cells.

Material

• Wooden toothpick

• Slide and cover glass

• Dropper and water

• Methylene Blue solution

• Tissue paper

• Microscope

Procedure

Use a new, clean wooden toothpick to gently scrape the inside lining of your cheek.

Do not scratch forcefully.

Using the dropper, place two drops of water on a
clean glass slide.

Put the toothpick in the water and stir it back and forth in the solution.

The cheek cells have already been transferred onto the slide.

Throw the toothpick away immediately.
Do not put the toothpick into your mouth again.

Put the cover glass onto the water to prepare a wet mount slide.

Stain the cells.

Observe the slide under the microscope with both the low-power and high-power objectives.

Wash you, your slide and all equipment with soap or detergent after the observation.

Cover glass can be discarded safely.

Observation

You will see a few small and irregular shaped cheek cells. These cells do not look like cells found in plants. They don’t have a cell wall nor green chloroplasts, they have a thin lining that contains the cytoplasm. It is called the cell membrane.

After staining, you may be able to see blue dots in the middle of the cell. These are the nuclei (singular-nucleus), the “brains” of the cells.