POTATO CELLS WITH STARCH IN WATER VISIBLE 100X PREMIERE MICROSCOPE BY HECTOR DAVID ARGUELLES

March 8, 2022 - Leave a comment - Edit

It’s a recurring assignment in the biology class of 4th graders at Radulphus College, a prep school for higher education students.

Every year, we observe cells of vegetable and animal origin. The task is for students to learn about animal and plant microscopy. From tomato cells to pepper cells, banana and onion cells, and definitely potato cells, as well as cheek cells. We always succeed in spotting all cells except the potato cells. When attempting to observe potato cells, we typically find only starch matter and broken cells.

In 2020, Hector, with the minimal materials at his disposal, managed to prepare a slide of potato cells in water, which turned out to be the best cell slide ever in my teaching assistant career of over 20 years.

It was not easy to observe initially under a cheap premiere microscope made in China, but we managed to capture a well-lit image using my Samsung A10 Android phone.

The result amazed everyone and set a new standard for our students. “Everybody wants to achieve the same or better results,” we hear frequently.

We will continue to strive for improvement and are pleased to offer you the picture for educational purposes because we had never found a potato cell example online. This allows students to get an idea of what to look for in their assignments. Remember Hector David Arguelles as the creator of the cell slide and his school, Radulphus College from Curacao.