Thread: Kids Microscope.

I got my son (7 1/2 already) a microscope for Christmas.
Any ideas for interesting things to put under it?
It's not that powerful, not much more than a toy really, but powerful enough and very clear.

Insects are always good (ants and mossies).

Hairs.

Dead skin.

Couple drops of swamp water usually has something good swimming in it.

Salt and Sugar look cool.

^ & ^^ Cheers.

Has the 'scope got a light or a mirror?

Any volcanic rock with large crystals in it like a granite, rhyolite, andesite or gabbro. Or quartz amethyst crystals from a geode.

Leaves, see the vein structures.

pencil lead

dog ticks

I was going to say bugs as well, but Withnall got there first. I remember looking at ants with my first one - major cool stuff!

Originally Posted by withnallstoke

Has the 'scope got a light or a mirror?

Both.

Thin slices of plants and veggies, cork if you have some, fur or hair, insect wing, try a scraping of cells from inside the mouth (cheek cells), sand from different places, onion skin (easy to get a good thin layer), mold from bread if you have some, dandruff, seeds, grass, flower stamens, flower petals, moss, spider webs, fish scales, various synthetic fibers, tooth plaque (!), mushroom gills, mosquito larvae if you have them breeding near you (lecture on dengue to follow if you do!)....

eyelashes

:shudder:



wtf??

Originally Posted by Koojo

Originally Posted by withnallstoke

Has the 'scope got a light or a mirror?

Both.

With the light, look at really thin stuff ( as mentioned,dead skin and dandruff have really good colours).

Drop of fresh blood.


Dexterlicious....

This is an interesting site, with some easy "home brew" to do cell staining on colourless sections....

http://microscopetalk.wordpress.com/...roscopy-stain/

Any ideas for interesting things to put under it?

Somtam

Originally Posted by Simon43

Somtam

Already mentioned:

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

swamp water

OckerRocker's brain.

chang, leo, hong thong,...

chicken nuggets

Anything that fits on a slide will grab his imagination at that age. Have fun.

Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

OckerRocker's brain

Might need something a bit more powerful .....

Plaque from the teeth, he'll spend more time cleaning them.

can you attach the camera phone to it for some happysnaps to show grandma ?

Originally Posted by chassamui

Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

OckerRocker's brain

Might need something a bit more powerful .....

OK then, OckerRocker's little toe. That's more powerful.

Originally Posted by Rainfall

Plaque from the teeth, he'll spend more time cleaning them.

Nowt to do with a microscope (sorry), but a really cool experiment for kids to encourage them to clean their teeth more is to take a tooth and suspend it in a glass of Coke and watch it rot away, day by day. Scary how quickly it happens.