Summer Stem Challenge: Microscope Fun!

 Man, I feel like we just started our summer and now, I am fitting some blogging in before heading to hair appointments for the boys.  We have 12 more days of vacation left and in between all the getting ready for school stuff I am making sure we are taking advantage of every bit of our vacation. A post from 4 years ago popped up on my Time Hop app and I just sort of grinned in retrospect at the thought that I couldn't wait for school to start.  My, how much that has changed!

Last week, I pulled out the microscope that Ethan got for Christmas.   We had so much fun exploring the way the microscope works and the different magnifications.  I made up a Microscope journal that I will link you to at the bottom that has pages for them to label the parts of the microscope and explore the way the microscope works.

 The first thing we did was study the parts of the microscope and then we cut out a newsprint letter e and placed it on our plate.  We drew what we saw before we looked at it under the microscope and then drew what we saw under the microscope.  The point of the letter e was to show how it turns it around, like a mirror image.  When you look at sugar or salt, you aren't going to notice the reversing because they are so small.  Then we compared salt and sugar up close. 

  The last page, they got to pick three different things to look at under the scope.  Ethan had a blast and Weston lost interest half way through.  So, it might have been a lot for one day depending on the age.  Either way, they had a blast doing it!

You can print out your own microscope packet here.

We used this microscope.   It gave us a good clean picture and allowed us to explore the different parts effectively.  In short, it was wonderful!  (So, to Ethan's grandparents. . . thank you! It's awesome!). 

I hope you enjoy this activity and put the packet to good use.  Please only use it for personal use. . . or even in the classroom.

I hope that your summer is going great!