How To Find Tardigrades

In Lesson One, you'll learn how to collect moss and lichen where tardigrades are found. This lesson shows you where to collect moss with less dirt, and which lichen is fluffy, rather than hard or crusty because tardigrades prefer the fluffy lichen. You'll learn what to store your collected specimens in (envelopes or paper bags).

Once you've collected your specimens, you'll see how to number the envelopes, add date and time, and other important info. You will also learn about collecting leaf samples from trees to help in identification, and how to press these flat.

Finally, you will log all of your information in a scientific notebook which I show you how to prepare.

Download the Petri dish template and notebook templates here.

You can also download the lesson notes which summarize this lesson, then take the quiz.

After you take the quiz, you can reward yourself by downloading the Tardigrade Maze for fun. The answer key - is in the next lesson.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to label the petri dishes or condiment cups using numbers on labels. You'll learn how much lichen or moss to put in the specimen dish, what type of water to use, and how much you need to pour. You also learn how long to wait before your tardigrades are rehydrated.

Finally, you will learn what to take pictures of, and what kinds of information to enter into your scientific notebook.

Download the lesson notes which summarize this lesson, then take the quiz.

After you take the quiz, you can reward yourself by downloading the answer key for the Tardigrade Maze. Then for more fun, download the Tardigrade Crossword Puzzle for fun (it's answer key is in the next lesson).

In this lesson, you'll learn about the different kinds of microscopes, a dissecting microscope with a zoom capability vs. a compound microscope which has several objectives lenses. You will also see the prism microscope which can be used as a field microscope. And you will learn how to calculate magnification.

Next you'll learn how to use a black background on the stage under the petri dish, then use an LED flashlight in a way that makes your tardigrades pop out in high contrast.

You'll see how best to search through the forest of lichen or moss on the bottom of the dish by rotating and spiraling inwards towards the center. You'll see how to trick tardigrades to come out of hiding.

Download the lesson notes which summarize this lesson, then take the quiz.

After you take the quiz, you can reward yourself by downloading the answer key for the Tardigrade Crossword Puzzle, and then you can download the Tardigrade Wordsearch for fun (its answer key is in the next lesson).

In this lesson, you'll learn about microscope lighting, magnification, and measuring size under the microscope. And you'll also see what accessories are needed such as slides, tweezers, eyedropper, etc.

You will also learn step by step how to transfer a tardigrade from the petri dish to the microscope slide for viewing at higher magnification. We'll review calculating magnification, and what to put in the scientific notebook.

Finally, you'll learn how to photograph and make video of your tardigrade as seen through the microscope.

Download the lesson notes which summarize this lesson, then take the quiz.

After you take the quiz, you can reward yourself by downloading the answer key for the Tardigrade Wordsearch.

Then you can reward yourself by downloading my game: Tardigrade Trivia. This is actually a printable set of Tardigrade Trivia game cards. This game lets you share tardigrade science with scientists young and old. This is a one-of-a-kind game to play with family and friends, from kids to grandkids. Printable PDF files allow you to create your own deck of Tardigrade Trivia Cards using the standard business card template card stock. Makes a great science gift too!

In this lesson, you'll learn how to make a plant press. You can use a plant press, or leaf press, for all sorts of projects, including craft projects where you need to press things flat. You can press and make dried flowers, collect beautiful fall-colored leaves, or make greeting cards. If you are simply are interested in nature this is a great way to get physically closer to the natural world. We are all part of nature!

More practically, if you want to do a science project, it is important to describe and document the environment. Tree identification often becomes a key part of the project and by taking leaf samples, it helps to identify trees. Field manuals about trees are very good, but often you will need to do more research to identify a particular tree species. Leaf samples are critical in this task. A good plant press is the answer.

Be sure to download the accompanying book that goes with this lesson. It shows you step by step what you'll see in the video.

This is my specially curated playlist of the best tardigrade videos on YouTube. I continually update this list.

Here are links to my official Tardigrade Podcast

Dr James Murray was a biologist and explorer. He was born in Glasgow in 1865 and died in 1914. He studied Zoology at Glasgow University and took art classes at Glasgow School of Art. This explains the high quality of his drawings of tardigrades. He contributed to tardigrade science by describing 66 species of tardigrade.

Long before there were microscope cameras or a microscope app for iphones, one had to make drawings of micro-organisms like bacteria or parts of the tardigrade. Murray was very careful about noting the size of a tardigrade as well, which you can see in his Plate III from the Scottish Lochs. Download the printable poster here.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and was awarded the Society’s Neil Prize for the period 1909-11. In 1907, at the age of 41, he served under Ernest Shackleton on the British Antarctic Expedition, and later co-wrote a book about the expedition, titled Antarctic Days.

This is a rare and highly collectable book. Copies in the original limited edition sell at auction in the thousands of pounds. Reproductions are available and even these are quite pricey. You are getting this eBook for FREE, the entire text, in the original typeset format, yellowish tinted pages and all! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

The video tells you all about Rheinberg Filters about. If you are more advanced, and you have a compound microscope (or you're planning to buy one) then you may want my paperback book: Your Microscope Hobby- which teaches you how to make multi-colored filters for your microscope.

You can buy the paperback version of the book on Amazon here:

https://amzn.to/3x9EEUU

This paperback is printed in black and white, and the book includes a link for the free color version as a pdf download.

AND NOW, as mentioned in the video…

Here is your Free Audio Book and eBook (download them here)

Audio Book- How to Find Tardigrades - Several versions available for listening online or downloading to your devices

Grab my three favorite books for beginners in microscopy. Download these Ebooks as pdf files:

1. Marvels of Pond Life There are 12 Chapters – one for each of the months of the year, serving as the author’s personal diary of sorts, and which also could be used as a program of study. Written by Henry Slack, Secretary to the Royal Microscopial Society, some of the excellent illustrations are by famous microscopist the Hon. Mrs. Mary Ward, although she is not credited in the text. In the back section of the book, however, the publisher does recommend her books, which are now collector’s items due to the quality of the illustrations.

2. The Romance of the Microscope The first two chapters give a wonderful in depth history of the microscope–its development and biographical accounts of the early microscopists. Chapters three and four are about light and the compound microscope. And from there throughout the next dozen chapters the author explores animal and plant life as well as various environments. The remaining few chapters explain equipment, and even how optical glass is made and used in microscopes. With 22 chapters, the plates are a combination of drawings and black & white photos.

3. Through a Microscope Truly a classic in microscopy because it was written in Boston when the household water supply came from the Cochituate Aqueduct. An experiment in the book has one examine tap water. Resulting specimens include water fleas, cyclops, rotifers, vorticella, and more, all amply illustrated. Numerous diatoms, also found in the Cochituate water are also illustrated. This book serves as a historical benchmark because the decline in cholera and typhoid due to advances in water treatment is one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.

Although the TV Globo video is in Portuguese, I had an English translation made and added subtitles to the video. You can also download the English translation here.