Some ideas from teachers and from us about how to use the microscopes with kids:

• A group of up to 3-5 kids can interact around one microscope with an iPad/tablet.
• In a school with multiple microscopes, one microscope can sit in each classroom, and at times the whole set of microscopes can be used in one classroom to allow stations at which a few kids can use each microscope.
• Have students guess what kinds of objects might have interesting microscopic detail (like microscopic hairs on insects, crystal shapes in table salt, or microscopic printing on dollar bills). Then let them look at things and see.
• Encourage students to imagine what microscopic features might explain things they can see or feel, and then look under the microscope to test their intuition -- does this leaf feel rough on your fingers because there are microscopic bumps on it? Is the color pattern on this petal explained by individual cells taking on specific colors, in tiny mosaic patterns?
• Have kids try to match up what they see on microscopes with larger objects left in front of them—which microscope shows salt? cloth? an insect wing?
• Ask kids to describe what they see in writing, and draw pictures. Or have the kids make computer-based book projects with the images they took and some written descriptions of each image (here's an example).
• Match what kids will look at with themes in your grade's science curriculum, for example insects, cells (lily petals are great for this since the cells are pretty big, and red onions are awesome), crystals (table salt has beautiful square crystals because of the way that sodium and chloride pack together), soil components etc.
• Let kids explore: simply leave the microscopes around for kids to use whenever they like and when they have things to look at. Let them bring stuff back inside from outdoor recess times.
• View aquatic plankton that you catch from local streams, ponds, lakes (or the ocean) using an inexpensive plankton net (Amazon link to one not sold any more, unfortunately, and a more expensive one).
• Use the microscopes as starting points for photography or drawing projects in art classes.
• Have kids guess what photos are of, using the image galleries from our workshops, or a gallery of images that your own students make.
• For older kids, have them take photos of specific insect parts that can serve as clues to figure out what species they're looking at.
• Create an inquiry station with one or more microscopes in a school's library
• For schools with makerspaces, have students in a class or a science club build their own microscopes!
• If kids make their own microscopes, have each kid decorate the wood to personalize their own microscope, to help instill a sense of pride in their own scientific tool (here's an example).

Got other ideas? Please share them with us! Email bobg[at]unc.edu

photo credit: Barbara Tyroler

photo credit: Barbara Tyroler