How do we look inside the cell?

Question

My sister is in 9th grade biology and her teacher avoided answering the question of how we actually study the inside of a cell. I haven't taken biology in a while but I'd like to give her an answer. Can someone roughly summarize how we actually learn about what goes on inside a cell? Just mentioning a few of the most common or used techniques would be fine. Note: I hope this isn't a bad question. It's a bit vague. But I didn't want to leave her without a decent answer.

Answer 1

To see the inside of cells, we used thin cuts, or splices, or whatever you want to call it. Essentially, we can cut materials really, really thin. This then allows us to see the individual parts of cells.

Now in larger cells (amoeba, and other large unicellular organisms) you can simply view these organisms under the microscope overtime to see how they function and what the individual parts do. Many of these organisms are transparent, which allows us to observe the cell alive.