A Student-Built Cell Counting Chamber

 

Robert Ketcham

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 1994, Volume 15

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Abstract

It is easy for beginning students to determine the areas encompassed by the fields of view of the various objective lenses of a compound microscope. Such activities are done commonly at the start of a freshman lab. Diameters can be measured accurately by viewing the magnified image of a stage micrometer; acceptable values can be derived using only a millimeter ruler or squaremillimeter graph paper. In addition to building familiarity with the microscope, these calibrations contain the seeds of a quantitative way of thinking about laboratory work. The cell counting chamber grew out of a desire to nurture these seeds so that by the time students leave my twosemester introductory lab they are comfortable with a quantitative view of biology and have the skills needed to function quantitatively in upper-level labs.

Keywords:  microscopy

University of Toronto (1993)

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