object, clean the slide and cover slip, dispo- sing of the specimens.. One of the secrets of  successful observation with a microscope is  the use of clean slides and cover slips. Spots  or stains will distract you when looking at an  object.  pear slightly smudgy. The halftone dots of the  magazine picture are clearly defined. Place a few grains of salt on a slide, and ob- serve the salt crystals with the lowest setting  of your microscope. The crystals are tiny cu- bes and are all the same shape. Production of Salt Crystals Objects and accessories: Color Print  Objects: Permanent prepared specimens are produ- ced from objects that you would like to look  at again and again. The preparation of dry  objects (e. g. pollen or the wings of a fly) can  only be done with special glue. You’ll find  such glue at a local hobby store or online,  identified as “gum media.” Objects that con- tain liquid must first have the liquid taken out  of them before they can be prepared as per- manent specimens.  First, place the object in the middle of a clean  slide and cover it with a drop of glue (gum  media). Then place a cover slip on top of the  object and glue. Lightly press the cover slip,  so that the glue spreads to the edges. Let the  specimen harden for 2-3 days before obser- ving it. Textile Fibers Objects and accessories: For a smear specimen, place a drop of the  liquid to be observed (e.g. water from a pudd- le in the forest) on the end of the slide using  a pipette. Then smear the liquid across the  slide with the help of a second slide. Before  observing, let the slides dry together for a few  minutes.  Add salt to the water until the salt will no  longer dissolve. You now have a saturated  salt solution. Wait until the water has cooled.  Attach a paper clip to the end of the cotton  thread. The paper clip serves as a weight.  Tie the other end of the cotton thread into  a knot around the match, and dip the end  with the paper clip in the salt solution. Place  the match horizontally on top of the test  tube, which prevents the cotton thread from  slipping all the way down into the test tube.  Now, place the tube in a warm place for 3-4  days. If you take a look at the glass after  a few days under the microscope, you can  see that a little colony of salt crystals has  formed on the cotton thread. Artemia salina are a species of shrimp  typically found in salt lakes, bodies of water  with a higher salinity than even the ocean.  During a drought, a salt lake can become  a hostile habitat for organisms, and entire  populations of Artemia salina sometimes  die off. During drought conditions, to ensure  that the species will repopulate the salt lake  when the drought ends, Artemia salina lay  thick-shelled eggs called winter eggs that  can survive for up to ten years in a dormant  state. Winter eggs can withstand heat, cold  and chemicals. These eggs hatch when  favorable conditions return to their ambient  environment. The eggs provided (23d) are  of this type. To hatch the shrimp, create a solution with  an appropriate salinity and temperature.  First, fill two containers with a half litre of  freshwater, and let them both stand for  Table Salt Object: Common table salt Rayon is a synthetic material that is produced  by a long chemical process. All the fibers  have solid, dark lines on the smooth, shiny  surface. After drying, the fibers curl into the  same position. Observe the differences and  the similarities between the different types of  fibers. The fibers of the wool also come from an  animal. The surface is made of overlapping  sleeves that look broken and wavy. If pos- sible, compare wool from different weaving  mills. In doing so, take a look at the different  appearance of the fibers. Experts can deter- mine which country the wool came from by  doing this.  Linen fibers also come from a plant, and they  are round and run in one direction. The fibers  shine like silk and exhibit many bulges along  the length of the thread.  Silk comes from an animal and is made up of  solid fibers that are small in diameter, in con- trast to the hollow plant-based fibers. Each  fiber is smooth and even and looks like a tiny  glass tube.  1. A small piece of paper from a newspaper  with a black and white picture and some text.  2. A similar piece of paper from a magazine  with color pictures and text. In order to observe the letters and the pictu- res, produce a short-term slide from each ob- ject. Now, set your microscope to the lowest  magnification to look at the specimen from  the newspaper. The letters on the newspaper  look frayed and broken, since they are prin- ted on raw, low-quality paper. Now look at the  specimen from the magazine. The letters on  the magazine specimen look smoother and  more complete. The pictures in the newspa- per are made up of many tiny dots, which ap- 1. Threads from various fabrics (e.g. cotton,  linen, wool, silk, rayon, and nylon)  2. Two needles Place each thread on a separate slide and  fray the samples using the two needles. Next,  wet the threads and cover them each with a  cover slip. Set the microscope to one of the  lower magnifications. Observe each slide in  turn. Cotton fibers come from a plant and look  like a flat, twisted ribbon under the micro- scope. The fibers are thicker and rounder at  the edges than in the middle. Cotton fibers  are basically long, collapsed tubes. Raising Brine Shrimp Accessories: 1. Shrimp eggs (at your local hobby store) 2. Sea salt 3. Hatchery 4. Yeast 1. A small piece of color - printed newspaper 2. A similar piece of paper from a magazine Make short-term specimens from the objects  and observe them with the lowest magnifica- tion. The colored halftone dots of the newspa- per often overlap. Sometimes, you‘ll even noti- ce two colors in one dot. In the magazine, the  dots appear clear and rich in contrast. Look at  the different sizes of the dots. Customer Service: Call 1-866-252-3811 National Geographic’s net proceeds  support vital exploration, conservation,  research, and education programs. 5 Incubate Your Brine Shrimp Experiment 4:  Experiments Experiment 1: How to Prepare a Smear Specimen Experiment 6: How to Prepare a Dry Object  Experiment 3: Experiment 2: Experiment 5:  Permanent Prepared Specimens Black - and - White Print Objects: 1200X Microscope Manual 1. Table salt 2. A graduated cylinder filled halfway with  warm water to dissolve the salt 3. Cotton thread 4. Paper clips 5. A matchstick or pencil