Teacher Notes:

 Microscopes should be a fun experience for students.  Unfortunately students when they see something under the microscope want it identified.  This sometimes is a challenge to teachers who are unfamiliar with pond life.  The material included in this section is more for a reference than anything else.  It helps students read a little about the organism.  However, the vocabulary may be above their head, but if interested it gives students a way to describe that feature.  This should not be tested as much as helping them give a name to unknown organisms.  It is like the first time you saw a cow and associate the word with the object.  

Students should be able to spend an entire lab on looking at holoplankton.  Since holoplankton tends to be smaller than meroplankton you can use both the transmitting and reflecting microscope.  The transmitted light microsope however, is the better type of microscope and using the demoslides or wetmounts is the best slide techniques.  If you are short on time and have several classes, the demoslides is the preferable method since successive classes can see them without spending a lot of time on slide preparation.