Page 14 - Innovator's Science-8

way, when we use a magnifying glass, it makes small things look bigger and
clearer, allowing us to observe details that our eyes alone cannot.

Activity-1 Aim: To observe how a curved glass flask fulled with water magnifies objects.
Materials Required: Notebook, round bo om flask, water
Experiential Learning
Procedure and Observa on: If you take a glass flask with a round bo om and fill it
with water, then close it with a cork, something interes ng happens. When you
place this flask over a book and look at the le ers through it, the le ers appear
bigger than they really are. This is because the flask with water bends light and
works like a magnifying glass. A real magnifying glass does the same thing—it makes
small objects, like an ant, look larger and
clearer so you can see details of its body.
For many years, people wondered about
the ny living things around them, but
they could not see them with just their
eyes. The discovery of the microscope
finally allowed humans to see this
a. Microscope of hidden world of ny organisms for the
Robert Hooke very first me.

WHAT IS A CELL?
A cell (from Latin cella, meaning 'Small Room') is the basic structural,
functional, and biological unit of all known living organisms. A cell is the
b. Cork cells as published
in the Micrographia smallest unit of life that can replicate independently, and cells are often
called the 'Building Blocks of Life '.
Science
Bytes

Testimony
In 1665, a scien st named Robert Hooke wrote a book called Micrographia. He used a microscope that
could make objects look 200 to 300 mes bigger and drew detailed pictures of ny things nobody had
seen before. When he looked at a thin slice of cork, he observed many small, empty spaces that looked
like a honeycomb. He named these spaces "cells," and this was the first me the term was used in
science to describe the basic unit of life. Around the same me, a Dutch scien st named Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek made stronger microscopes with be er lenses. He was the first to see ny living
organisms like bacteria and blood cells, which is why he is called the Father of Microbiology.

Activity-2 Aim: To observe the structure of onion peel under a microscope.
Materials Required: Onion bulb, forceps, petri dish, safranin solu on
Experiential Learning
Procedure:
• Take an onion bulb from your kitchen or garden and wash it thoroughly with water.

• Cut the onion bulb ver cally into pieces. Take one piece of onion and pull out the
thin, transparent layer from its inner surface with the help of forceps. This layer
is called the onion peel.

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