Using magnification tools

Scientists often use tools to help with observations. Tools extend our senses, allowing us to observe things we might otherwise miss. Carol Brieseman shows us two tools that aid students in getting a bit closer to what they’re observing. Carol is the manager of House of Science, Hutt Valley, Wellington.

Questions for consideration:

How might you introduce these tools to your students? Via demonstration or discovery?
What do you need to use these tools effectively?
What science vocabulary will you and your students require when exploring with magnification tools?

Transcript

Carol Brieseman

Kia ora koutou. My name is Carol Brieseman, and I’m here to show you a couple of tools that we can use in the classroom that really help us with observations. It’s getting them that little bit closer.

The first one is just the simple handheld magnifying lens. These, I would not – don’t write them off. They’re such a really cool thing to have out in the field or, you know, everywhere – just check them out.

It’s important to try and encourage the kids to understand that these are a scientific tool and to use them properly – keep your hands on the black parts, keep the lens nice and clean. Not doing the Sherlock Holmes thing, although that is kind of fun, but not doing that, but being able to look at something, focus it probably between, halfway between your eye and whatever the item is that you’re looking at. We’re just focusing in and just taking the time to have a real good look and check out – like with this dandelion here – all those beautiful little feathery parts.

OK, so that’s the first thing, a magnifying glass.

The second one I want to show you is the digital microscope. Now what we’ve got here, this one, they can come from places like Jaycar or the like, or if you’re a House of Science member, you can also get them and a number of the different kits there.

They come along with a special little cap to just protect the lens and also a stand.

I’ll get myself set up and here we go with a Google Doc – image, down to camera, and this will come around like that. OK, so we put that on here and let’s have a look and check that out.

And just by rotating, rotating the little lens a little bit and more around, you can get the magnification up and it just shows that part there.

OK, so you can also, because it’s a Google Doc, you can now also take it and make it into a photo. So, this petal here – on that little dot there and you’ve got it here – and then we can insert that into our picture and maybe put something down saying what it was. What was it? The underside of petal. OK, and you could write a little bit more of a description about it.

Just over here, I’ve just got a couple of others I’ve already done. We’ve got here, which is our, our leaf here. We’ve got the fern frond, which was from this one here. The spider leg I found and the underside of a geranium.

Other things that are really cool to do – it’s just a little bit of fabric. There – it’s come up this time. Fabulous. So you can see how we can then write a little bit of a description underneath, and so you’re also getting in your literacy in there at the same time as some science.

Great, have fun with this! Bye now.

Acknowledgements

The Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao acknowledges the contribution of Carol Brieseman, Manager of House of Science, Hutt Valley, Wellington, and the New Zealand Association of Primary Science Educators (NZAPSE) in making this video.