Laboratory Activity 1- Epidermal Peel Using Onion Bulbs

December 19, 2015 by Heather Woodie

Objective:

To view the external structure of onion bulbs.

Materials:

 Set of Microscope Slides

 Cover Slips

 Pipette

 Iodine

 Onion

 Microscope

Procedure:

 peel the onion, get one layer of it and it should be super thin.

 place the onion peel onto the slide and smooth out any wrinkles with

forceps or the end of your pipette

 put one drop or two of iodine onto the top of the onion cell

 drop the cover slip over the onion cells by placing one end of the cover

slip into the iodine and dropping the other side down. This helps to

prevent bubbles.

 check for bubbles, try to remove it by lightly tapping with the bulb end of

the pipette or placing a tissue on the liquid at the edge of the cover slip

close to the bubble.

 observe under the microscope place the slide on the stage of the

microscope and observe under all three levels of magnification.

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 RECORDING OF OBSERVATION

Observation 1

Under low power of the microscope

1. What can you see?

a. long rows of rectangular cells.
b. long rows of circle cells in the.
c. dispersed polygonal cells.
d. long rows of round cells.

2. Which structures of the cell can you see? Do you see the cell wall, the
nucleus and a large vacuole contained in the cytoplasm?

a. cell wall and nucleus.

b. vacuole and DNA
c. large vacuole contained in cytoplasm.
d. cellwall and DNA

Observation 2

After staining the onion peel

1. What is the general shape of these cells?

a. rectangular
b. circular
c. triangular
d. polygonal

2. What is the darkly stained body in each cell?

a. nucleus
b. cytoplasm
c. DNA
d. vacoule

3. Vacuole are seen in the cell cytoplasm?

a. True
b. False

https://blogshewrote.org/2015/12/19/observing-onion-cells/
 4. Does the nucleus become more conspicuous after staining?

a. True
b. False

5. What is the position of the cytoplasm in the cell?

a. central
b. peripheral
c. vertical
d. diagonal

6. What is the shape of the nucleus?

a. spherical
b. oval
c. irregular
d. spiral

7. Sketch the onion peel cell as seen under the microscope. Label the
parts such as the cell wall (2 points), cytoplasm (2 points), vacuole (2
points) and the nucleus (2 points).

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https://blogshewrote.org/2015/12/19/observing-onion-cells/