Microscopes
What would biology be without the microscope. It opened our eyes to a whole world of little organisms that explained the cause of many illnesses and provide medical breakthroughs such as antibiotics.
Shopping for a Microscope
Microscopes selections span all budget ranges. You can go for free virtual labs on the net or via software that you buy. You can share the expenses with another home school family. You can get a very inexpensive little pocked microscope, a durable field microscope that can survive backpacking out in the wild, or you can get a high-powered university quality lab scope to really give your students the "wow!" experience. Whatever you do, don't completely skip giving your biology student the experiences of working with a microscope, especially if they will be heading off to college.
The image to the left shows my kids using an inexpensive, sturdy little microscope for families that like to take their scopes into the great outdoors. It is tough enough to handle being packed around through the woods. Its design allows light to enter through a plastic tube that bends the light up to the stage instead of the traditional mirror. The plastic tube has a lifetime guarantee should you need to replaces it and you need not worry about breaking a glass mirror with this design. The rest of the scope is all metal and feels very sturdy. The design is simple. To focus, you turn the barrel. There isn't a turret for the lenses which can be a drawback because it can make it more challenging to keep the object that you are looking at positioned well for viewing the same place at a higher resolution. You can see the manufacturer's order page at http://www.magiscope.com/model70.htm.
The image to the left shows my kids using an inexpensive, sturdy little microscope for families that like to take their scopes into the great outdoors. It is tough enough to handle being packed around through the woods. Its design allows light to enter through a plastic tube that bends the light up to the stage instead of the traditional mirror. The plastic tube has a lifetime guarantee should you need to replaces it and you need not worry about breaking a glass mirror with this design. The rest of the scope is all metal and feels very sturdy. The design is simple. To focus, you turn the barrel. There isn't a turret for the lenses which can be a drawback because it can make it more challenging to keep the object that you are looking at positioned well for viewing the same place at a higher resolution. You can see the manufacturer's order page at http://www.magiscope.com/model70.htm.
Purchasing a Reconditioned Microscope
Nikon Alphaphot YS
For a long time, we made do with the little Magiscope. In the first few years of teaching biology online, I even taped a regular webcam on the top of it and sent images into the online classroom and recorded videos for our digital nature library. I kept wanting a better microscope and a real microscope digital video camera so that it could self-focus.
I know it may sound strange, but I was able to get the microscope video camera first. That broke my budget pretty well and it looked like it would be quite a while before I had enough to buy a good quality microscope to put it on. That microscope camera sure had my appetite whetted for using at least what I had and so I joined two microscope Yahoo groups and began closely following the posts to learn more about the use of them.
I know it may sound strange, but I was able to get the microscope video camera first. That broke my budget pretty well and it looked like it would be quite a while before I had enough to buy a good quality microscope to put it on. That microscope camera sure had my appetite whetted for using at least what I had and so I joined two microscope Yahoo groups and began closely following the posts to learn more about the use of them.
I posted about the volunteer work that I did as a biology instructor for VHSG and Gary Brown offered to sell me a reconditioned microscope that he had in stock.It was a NIkon Alphaphot YS. It was perfectly suited to my needs since it had a dual eyepiece allowing me to add the camera on one eyepiece and use the other one directly to see the image. Gary Brown reconditions microscopes for a living, so check out what he has. You can get a much higher power scope for the money when you buy a reconditioned one. His contact information is Gary Brown at [email protected].
Here are some videos and photos from our microscope explorations.
Below is a bdelloidea rotifer feeding. I know it may sound gross, but when my husband worked on correcting a venting problem in our plumbing, I wanted to see what might be alive in the coating that was inside the pipes. The coating was chock full of amazing little portists. I recorded some videos and will share my favorite one here. Use the funny arrows all pointing outward to see it full screen. Watch for the spinning flagella up near the mouth as it creates a current to pull in prey. If you watch until the end, you will see how it 'walks'.
Here are some videos and photos from our microscope explorations.
Below is a bdelloidea rotifer feeding. I know it may sound gross, but when my husband worked on correcting a venting problem in our plumbing, I wanted to see what might be alive in the coating that was inside the pipes. The coating was chock full of amazing little portists. I recorded some videos and will share my favorite one here. Use the funny arrows all pointing outward to see it full screen. Watch for the spinning flagella up near the mouth as it creates a current to pull in prey. If you watch until the end, you will see how it 'walks'.
Rotifer Feeding from Tammy Moore on Vimeo.