A slide and even coverslip may be made from the same plastic, although being hydrophobic they will not have the same properties of glass when making wet mounts. Improvise a method for securing the punctured plastic over the slide; ideally the vertical spacing can be closely adjusted to focus.

On a bright day, there may not be any need for additional lighting, but in most classrooms the image will be too dim to be easily seen. The sun is a powerful light source, though not always convenient. Flashlights are generally inexpensive and available; many cell phones have one built in the end. To angle the light into the slide, find either a piece of mirror glass, wrinkle-free aluminum foil, the metalized side of a biscuit wrapper, etc.

Experiment with a variety of designs to see what works best given the ma- terials available to your school. If you use a slide of onion cells stained with iodine solution (see Sources of Chemicals), your students should be able to see cell walls and nuclei.