Production and Use of an Open Access Film to Demonstrate the Preparation of Histological Sections

Students of histology are often unaware of how the tissue sections they use are made. This separation from reality becomes even greater when digital microscopy is used for teaching. We describe the making and use of a short, 12 minute, film demonstrating the preparation of tissue sections for histology and histopathology. The aim of this film is to demonstrate the basics of the techniques used in histological tissue section preparation rather than an instructional video. The film is freely available on the University of Bristol You tube site (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PafHxS5bq9A) [3] and has had over 42,000 hits worldwide since it was uploaded in April 2013 including over 18,000 in the last year. The film has received many favourable comments from viewers.