Day 7 – Pollen and Dust: What’s in the Air?

 

Day 7 – Pollen and Dust: What’s in the Air?

Blog Title: Airborne Mysteries – Pollen, Spores, and Dust Bunnies

Place sticky tape near windowsills or wave it through the air, then stick it on a slide.

Look for:

• Pollen grains (from flowers or grass)

• Fungal spores

• Dust mite remains or household fibres

• Ash, fluff, or mystery fluff!

Bonus: Compare pollen from different flower types in the garden.

🌬️ Biology Blog – The Magic of Microscopes

Day 7: Airborne Mysteries – Pollen, Spores, and Dust Bunnies

You can’t see it. You can’t smell it. But the air around you is teeming with life—or at least evidence of it. Today, we’re pointing our microscopes at something that floats silently through our homes, classrooms, and gardens: pollen, spores, and dust.

If you’ve ever sneezed in a sunbeam or watched specks dance in the light, you’ve seen the tip of the microscopic iceberg. Let's take a deep breath (carefully!) and see what we can capture from the invisible world around us.

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🔍 What You’ll Need

• A low-power or digital microscope

• Sticky tape or clear slides with petroleum jelly

• A torch or good side-lighting

• Optional: a few flowers, air filter, or feather duster!

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🧪 Collecting Air Samples

There are several fun ways to catch airborne particles:

• Gently press clear sticky tape onto a windowsill, curtain, or bookshelf.

• Hold it in the air and wave it slowly around for a few seconds.

• Leave a petroleum jelly-smeared slide near a window for a few hours.

• Brush dust from furniture or a fan blade directly onto a slide.

Press the tape onto a glass slide (sticky side up) and observe. Alternatively, just place it under the digital microscope lens.

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🧬 What to Look For

🌼 Pollen Grains

• Come in a wild variety of shapes: spiky, round, ridged, or smooth

• Often yellow, orange or clear depending on plant

• Larger grains = insect-pollinated, smaller grains = wind-pollinated

• Some are beautifully symmetrical under the lens

Compare: pollen from a daisy, grass, and pine tree—they look completely different!

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🍄 Fungal Spores

• Tiny and often oval, round, or club-shaped

• May be grey, green, or clear

• Found in household dust, especially in damp areas or near soil

• Sometimes seen clumped together in spore packets

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🐾 Household Dust

• A mix of: skin flakes, fibres, pet hair, insect parts (!), plant debris, and more

• Can contain:

  • Feather fragments

  • Dust mites or their droppings

  • Synthetic fibres

  • Tiny grains of soil or sand

Yes, the average dust bunny is a mini museum of life. Slightly gross? Maybe. Absolutely fascinating? Definitely.

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📸 Photo Tips

• Use side-lighting to create contrast on clear particles

• Try viewing dry dust and then the same dust with a drop of water—it changes shape and clarity

• Use your phone camera to take a “Microscopic Sky” photo collage!

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👨‍🔬 Microscope Log Challenge

Create a logbook page for airborne finds:

Sample Type	Shape	Colour	Likely Identity	Notes
Spiky ball	Round	Yellow	Dandelion pollen	Very common
Oval blob	Clear	N/A	Fungal spore	Found near soil
Fibre	Blue	Shiny	Synthetic thread	From curtain

And that wraps up our Summer Tour of the Hidden World! From pond life to pollen, every drop, strand, and speck revealed something new. With just a microscope and your curiosity, the world never looks the same again.