OCR GCSE (9-1) Biology - Light microscopy

This is a lesson designed to meet specification points for the new OCR GCSE (Gateway Science) Biology B1 - ‘Cell-level systems’ SoW.

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This lesson begins by pupils completing a comprehension task, they will need to read details on the history of the microscope and answer questions into their books. Once finished pupils will need to then self-assess their work using the answers provided in the PowerPoint presentation.

The next part of the lesson focuses on the structure of a light microscope, and how to use it to view a specimen, including different ways in which stains can be used in light microscopy. Students will watch a video, and will need to answer questions in their books, before self-assessing their work.

Pupils are then introduced to the idea of ‘resolution’ - the definition for which they need to know so pupils could write this down in their books.

The next part of the lesson will focus more on maths skills related to microscopy, pupils will firstly need to calculate the overall magnification of a microscope using the objective lens and eyepiece lens magnifications. The next skill pupils will learn is to change units of measurement from cm > mm > um > nm.

The next calculation pupils will need to know is how to calculate the actual size of a specimen being observed down a microscope. Pupils will be introduced to the calculation and then given a couple of example questions, pupils can attempt to have a go at these themselves. The following slide goes through step-by-step how you would calculate the answers to these questions.

The plenary is a ‘Silent 5’ task where pupils will need to answer questions based upon what they have learnt during the lesson.