Hi everyone. While working on our Mobile Collaboration to Enhance Working, Learning, and Playing OER, three things happened:
(1) I started thinking about how science inquiry could be implemented with mobile devices.
(2) I started playing and letting my students explore with the digital wifi microscopes we purchased recently.
(3) I got further inspired by the following post by Sean Gallagher (Feb. 7, 2021)
Inquiry-based learning (IBL) and problem-based learning (PBL) in science are my main areas of interest when it comes to improving the learning in my science classroom and making it more student-directed, so I decided to see how inquiry would fit with microscopes that could go anywhere that students could go. You can either click on the Google Slides link below to view and listen at your own pace, or you can watch the YouTube video of my first attempt at using Camtasia to screencast (I admit, I am definitely not heading for a career in video production any time soon).
Google Slides Presentation: Science Inquiry with Mobile Digital Microscopes
Edit (Feb. 22) – Here is a link to just the video of me demonstrating the microscope. There was a sharing problem in Google Slides that I think I’ve fixed but just in case: Skybasic Microscope
A few years ago, I did a workshop at Science World in Vancouver where we learned how to 3D print Microscope attachments with small glass beads which can clip onto the phone. The results were absolutely incredible! If your school has access to a 3D printer, there are ample designs available online and the small glass beads can be purchased at arts and crafts stores.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIh9dnwnt7Y&ab_channel=PacificNorthwestNationalLaboratory
Hi Lori:
This is one smooth presentation. It’s great that you connected the use of the mobile digital microscope to scientific inquiry. Whenever mobile devices are included into the lesson plan, it’s so necessary for the purpose to be understood and clearly articulated to students. Science inquiry can also be measured, in that through the students process of learning, objectives and outcomes can be graded. The student can either a) achieve the required task, b) achieve the required task with teacher assistance, or c) not succeed in achieving the task. This was a very well delivered presentation.
Hi Lori,
I have used these portable digital microscopes and they are indeed a lot of fun and great for taking outside (Stands are a must as using them in your hand is really tricky to get a decent picture). I think they are perfect for elementary and junior high school students to get them curious about the microscopic world. They do not quite meet the quality level of actual compound microscopes (clarity, magnification…etc) but are a nice substitute until students reach the more senior science courses (a lot of broken slides and microscopes in grade 8/9 makes me save them for grade 10 at the earliest).
I have found that these smartphone clip ons are great for taking photos of microscope slides (https://www.amazon.ca/Microscope-Adapter-Smartphone-Camera-Adaptor/dp/B07412S738/ref=sr_1_33?crid=29LQUN65RSW9B&dchild=1&keywords=clip+on+microscope+for+phone&qid=1614070862&sprefix=microscope+clip+on+%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-33)
Hi Neill – I had not seen these before. These would definitely reduce the amount of time my students take to get the perfect photo through the eyepiece. As to the microscopes for senior students, I agree that you don’t get the same quality of images, and would never replace my compound microscopes, but there are in-class applications that are worthwhile. My Life Science 11 class used them today for their earthworm dissection to locate structures that they normally struggle to (or pretend to) find. Students often seem reluctant to use the stereo microscopes for this purpose, even if I set them up ahead of time, but were willing to grab these and connect to their phones. I had one group with a really poor specimen today and the other groups each took a photo with the portable microscope and shared them with this group.
I found one neat trick was using the digital microscope to link with my phone and then screencast the images onto a projector during labs. I did this once with a jar of live planaria during a lab so the class could watch them swimming around.
Here are a few pictures I took using the phone attachment a short while ago: https://twitter.com/NaturewithNeill/status/1357792443127582721
Hi Lori! It probably goes without saying that I love this. I’m fascinated by the possibilities when our gadgets can, on the cheap, be converted to work as totally different gadgets.
Perhaps I just remember waiting in a jumbled line behind the teacher to peer through the oculars of a (traditional, optical) microscope to look at some onion membrane for a few seconds before it was someone else’s turn. Having a live, shared visual feed, as well as the ability to save, analyze and share images must be so much more engaging.
Great video Lori! I share your apprehension with using Screencastify but have been forced to become more comfortable with it this year as I add videos into my online learning classrooms. I have found a virtual microscope to embed into the courses but it would great to have one of these digital microscopes at our outreach centre for students to come in and try and for me to use to make demonstration videos. You said the SkyBasic microscope is inexpensive, what is the approximate cost?
Hi DeeDee,
We paid $49.95 each in June and bought 3 of them for our science department. I have seen really similar ones on Amazon for around $40 since we bought ours. Five science teachers in the department with three fun new microscopes, so you can imagine we’re already fighting over them. We’re definitely going to be building up a class set. I’m also really interested in what virtual microscope you’re using. We’re face to face right now, but that would be so helpful for online learning.
Hi Sean,
When they’re all in good shape, I have enough classroom compound microscopes for a class of 28, but I find that I spend a lot of my time helping students find and focus on their specimens, and I’m often trouble-shooting microscope issues (especially when the microscope repair guy hasn’t been around in the last year). It’s not an intuitive learning process and it’s frustrating for many students. The greatest thing I’ve seen in the last few years is students using their smartphones to take photos through the microscope eyepiece. This way they can take their time doing observations and sketches and more easily ask questions about what they’re seeing, and even share the photos to absent classmates. I have students share their best photos on a lab day to our Teams chat and it’s like Instagram – everyone’s trying to get the best photo of the onion or spinach cells. I’ve put the app on my tablet and can project what’s on the portable microscope onto the classroom screen so that everyone can see and share their specimens.