In your opinion, why do we stain cell preparations?

Depends. Are you looking at bacterial cells and need to know whether they are gram positive/negative. Are you looking at plant or animal cells? I think the main reason we stain is to gain a clearer picture of the organism. Staining allows you to see structures that would otherwise be non visible on a slide. Like with bacterial cells, tells you what you're dealing with:whether antibiotics will work, wheter or not it is gram pos/neg, whether or not it is acid fast. I suppose it just lets you know what you're dealing with. Trust me, your lab teacher isn't just giving you busy work. Some things you have to stain just to be able to see them. By the way, iodine makes it a brown color. Methylene blue...kind of a bluish purple. With the stain you should be able to see nuclues and cell wall.