Exploratory Learning with a Digital Microscope

Inspire, Explore, and Apply

Copyright © 2004 The George Lucas Educational Foundation

* Engaging and exciting.

* A serious tool that is simple to use and fun.

* Inexpensive and easily purchased.

What is special about the digital microscope?

Good for what age?

Photograph credit: Rebecca L. McNallInvigorating Science Teaching with aHigh-Tech, Low-Cost ToolBy Lynn Bell and Randy Bell

How is this digital microscope used?

* The basic parts of the digital microscope:

What do they do?

* The digital microscope general interface:

What do they do?

* The digital microscope editing interface:

What do they do?

• Provide hands-on, exploratory learning opportunities.• Encourage interaction, cooperation, and problem

solving.• Build workplace skills, motivation, engagement, and

self-esteem.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (1996, April). Technology and Young Children—Ages 3 Through 8: A Position Statement of the National Association of Young Children.

WestEd. (2002, August). Investing in Technology: The Learning Return. WestEd Policy Program.

Why use the digital microscope?

• Form groups of two or three.• Read the article Bugscope: Magnifying the Connection

Between Students, Science, and Scientists: http://www.glef.org/php/article.php?id=Art_771

• Explore the Bugscope Web site: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/

• How might the Bugscope Web site (http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/) further enhance the use of the digital microscope?

Activity 1:

• Form groups of two or three.• Review lesson plan: Insects, Pre-Kindergarten to

Grade 2.• Visit the WebQuest: An Insect’s Perspective.• How might the WebQuest be used in conjunction with

the example lesson sequence?

The “Insects” learning sequence is based on “Brrrr, It’s Alive,” published in ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards for Students: Connecting Curriculum and Technology (2000).

Activity 2: