Optical microscopes are extremely useful teaching tools, and are frequently used in Japanese science education from elementary school to high school to study biological observation, but in most cases, observations are made using transmitted light. When observing through transmitted light, the image obtained from the sample is generally flat, and it is not possible to obtain a three-dimensional image like with a binocular stereomicroscope or an electron microscope. However, binocular stereomicroscopes are limited to low magnification, and unfortunately cannot provide images as high as optical microscopes. Originally, biological cells are assembled in a three-dimensional manner, and the inability to assemble a three-dimensional image using only two-dimensional images, as in the past, may encourage misconceptions about biological cells. In a questionnaire survey conducted on second-year university students, most students were unable to describe the stomata of plants as a three-dimensional image. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to make it possible to obtain three-dimensional images by devising side illumination, thereby making it possible to reproduce the image of biological cells three-dimensionally.
Taking as an example the observation of stomata in leaves, which is common in biological observation, by adjusting the illumination brightness and incidence angle of side illumination using LEDs, it was observed that the guard cells had a convex shape and the stomata had a concave shape.
In this presentation, observation methods while comparing images obtained with transmitted light and images taken with side illumination will be reported and discussed.
