A Student-Built Cell Counting Chamber

 

Robert Ketcham

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 1994, Volume 15

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)