|
|
 Useful
Web Sites
Exploring the Internet is an act of
inquiry. It is one vehicle that we can use in our search for
knowledge. Surfing the net can provide answers to our questions. It
can stimulate our curiosity. By its nature, it can lead to new
searches and to new knowledge. As one 4th
grade student put it, it can help you “learn to discover all the
things that you thought you could never discover.”
The websites listed below are intended for teacher users of ZOOM,
either for their own reference or, in many cases, to share with
their students. All are applicable to some aspects of Project ZOOM.
All are annotated with brief descriptive statements. These websites
are but a sample of sites available that may assist digital
microscope users to expand their horizons while zooming in on
science. |
CR Scientific: Microscope Experiments
Ideas for growing crystals, making hay infusions, and observing blood cells.
MicroAngela's Electron Microscope Image Gallery
Explore familiar and unexpected views of the microscopic world—mold, bacteria,
human body cells, insect heads and eyes, and many, many more. Good exploratory
site.
Entomology Image Gallery
Excellent microscopic views of lice, beetles, butterflies, moths, caterpillars,
flies, mosquitoes, and plant diseases.
DNA: An Instruction Manual for All Life
This site is titled DNA: An Instruction Manual for All Life. An excellent
teaching tool uses narrative, attractive graphics, and zooming technology to
explain and illustrate DNA. For instance, the graphics focuses on a human hand
and then zooms successively down through the nucleus of a cell to a
microphotograph of a chromosome.
The Gene Scene
The
Gene Scene is an attractively done, educationally excellent site that focuses on
DNA. Go on a genetic journey, investigate the genome project, and learn to do
experiments that extract DNA from onions, peas, kiwis, and other foods.
Interesting site!
Cells Alive!
This is an
outstanding site! Cells alive! includes extensive and interesting options, many
including animations and microphotographs of everything from the relative sizes
of human hair, dust mites, and ragweed pollen to an animated anatomy of a
splinter in our skin. This is a must see site!
Microbe Zoo
Take a trip to a zoo that most of us have never seen—the Microbe Zoo! Visit
Dirtland, Animal Pavilion, the Snack bar, Space Adventures, and Waterworld an
view the wide variety of organisms that inhabit these sites. Outstanding
microphotographs and neat ideas form the Digital Learning Center for Microbial
Ecology. A must-see for upper elementary and middle school kids.
Museum of Microscopy
Visit the Museum of Microscopy and take a historical trip through five centuries
of microscope technology. Great microscope photos and descriptions!
A Drop of Life
In A Drop of Life see the pond water Protists that are featured: Paramecium,
Volvox, Euglena, Amoeba, Stentor, and others. Check out the Galleries too. Neat,
colorful microphotographs. Interesting site!
Pond Life Identification Kit
This is a simple, useful guide to small and microscopic pond life. Excellent
links to microphotographs of a variety of organisms from bacteria, to worms, to
Hydra and more. The site also describes how to collect pond organisms.
Snowflake and Snow Crystal Photographs
Includes pictures of real snowflake crystals that fell to earth in North
America. In addition to picture galleries, also included is a whole lot more
information about snowflakes such as a guide to snowflakes, snowflake
activities, and how to photograph them. Neat resource!
Secret Worlds: The Universe Within
In Secret Worlds: The Universe within, view the Milky Way at 10 million light
years from the Earth. Then zoom in through space towards the Earth in successive
orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree in Florida. After that, keep
zooming toward the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals
leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the
subatomic universe of electrons, protons, and quarks. Excellent perspective!
Human Pathology Digital Image Gallery - Bronchopneumonia
In Optical Microscopy in Human Pathology we get a chance to view many
pathological conditions observed in stained human specimens, e.g.
microphotographs of bronchopneumonia, basal cell carcinoma cancer, coronary
arteriosclerosis, and many more. These are the real deals.
Molecular Expressions Photo Gallery: Burgers 'n Fries
In Burgers and Fries, we get to learn about and view thin microscopic sections
of the components of this popular meal. The microphotographs include thin
sections of wheat, beef, onion, cheese, lettuce, and potato. What’s for lunch?
Molecular Expressions Digital Video Gallery: Chemical Crystals
Welcome to the Nikon MicroscopyU digital movie gallery, featuring animated
videos of specimens from our library of full-motion and time-lapse videos. The
digital movies are downloadable as streaming media files that will play through
a web browser using Real Player, which is available as a free download. See cell
motility, pond life, and chemical crystals.
Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Virtual Scanning Electron Microscopy
In Virtual Scanning Electron Microscopy, users manipulate focus, contrast,
brightness, and magnification to zoom in on a variety of interesting specimens:
cockroach, ant, beetle, diatom, grasshopper, gecko feet, ragweed pollen, and
more. Simulates real microscope use.
Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Stereoscopic Zoom Microscopy
In Stereoscopic Zoom Microscopy, a tutorial allows users to explore zoom
magnification, focus, and illumination intensity in stereoscopic microscopes.
Objects viewed include an electronic diode, paper towel, computer chip, watch
gears, and others.
Molecular Expressions Cell Biology: Structure of Cells and Viruses
This site includes an interesting and useful timeline and descriptions of the
relative sizes of objects from humans to electron orbitals. The narrative
descriptions focus on cells and virus structures and include historical
perspectives.
Molecular Expressions: Activities in Optics
Online Activities for Students are provided to help you investigate light,
optics, and color. They were written by educators with input from scientists,
researchers, students, and teachers. Activities include Perspectives: The Powers
of 10, K-W-L, Mirrors and Multiple Images, Investigating Shadows, and many
others.
Molecular Expressions: QX3 Digital Image Gallery
This QX3 gallery takes a look at just about everything they could find around
the house, in the garden, and at the lab. This gallery presents the best digital
images from that effort. Included are butterfly wings, coffee filters,
electrical wires, feathers, green tree leaves, a necktie, and more. The images
are similar to those we might get from DigiScopes.
Isn't That a Protozoan?
A typical lesson plan for making and using hay infusions in elementary and
middle school classrooms.
Undercoverslip Investigation
Undercoverslip Investigation is a week-long plan for Grades 5-8 to develop and
use microscope skills while studying cells of single and multi-celled organisms.
Hatching Brine Shrimp
This site is a lesson plan that illustrates and guides an experiment to
determine the optimum salinity of water needed to hatch brine shrimp. Project
ZOOM encourages investigations and experiments like this one.
Crystal Creations
Crystal Creations provides simple directions for growing crystals that may be
used in ZOOM investigations and experiments and viewed with DigiScope
technology.
Grass Culture After 48 Hours
A short overview of hay infusions and several photomicrographs of organisms that
may inhabit them.
Daphnia Central
Depicts investigations about the functional ecology of Daphnia showing results
from small, close-up images of how food is ingested to how it is handled and
caught to larger pictures of how the food is picked from the feeding current,
what this current looks like, and how it is generated by the animal. Other pages
show swimming, orientation in the water, and interactions between animals.
Drugged Out Daphnia
A lesson plan on Daphnia designed to guide student investigations on the effects
of nicotine, caffeine, aspirin, alcohol, and sleeping pills on the heart rates
of Daphnia. Plans such as these could be used as models for experiments
investigating the effects of other variables such as temperature, salinity, and
light on Daphnia.
Microfossils: Tiny Hidden Treasures
Microfossils are very useful in many geological investigations. Their size and
abundance make them invaluable tools for determining the age of sedimentary
rocks, and they are commonly used as index fossils (fossils that are diagnostic
of a certain age or rock unit). This site describes index fossils and shows
several electron microscope micrographs of microfossils.
The Paleontology Portal
An interactive
site, The Paleontology Portal encourages the user to explore time and space, a
fossil gallery, famous flora and fauna, careers, and more.
Using Microscopes Lesson Plan
Lesson plan designed to further the students’ understanding of cells and to give
them the experience of using a microscope. Appropriate for grades 3-6. This
activity is used during a unit about cells, giving the students the opportunity
to see cells and to discover the difference between plant and animal cells, e.g.
onion, cheek, and potato.
Microscope Imaging Station: Gallery
The Microscope Imaging Station produces high-speed resolution images and
time-lapse movies using research-grade microscopes. This gallery contains a
range of images and movies that illustrate the diversity of what can be seen
with light microscopes. See mitosis in sea urchin eggs, worms crawling on
bacteria, and mouse embryonic stem cell division. Great site!
Microscope Lesson Plans
Click on this site and enter “Microscope” for a search. Twenty-four (24) lesson
ideas and references for microscope-related lesson plans and activities come up.
Microbes On My Mind
Students will observe and read about microorganisms so that they can create an
information book on microorganisms after they view them with microscopes. Nice
lesson plan.
Scanning Electron Microscope
Excellent images from a scanning electron microscope, e.g. porcupine quill,
fly’s leg, toilet paper, black widow spider claw, and many more in the image
gallery—plus descriptions of how the SEM works, teacher resources, and others.
Very interesting site.
Microorganisms! The Micropolitan Museum
For several centuries artists have depicted the human figure, still-lifes,
landscapes or non-figurative motives. One subject has been widely neglected all
those years: Microorganisms! The Micropolitan Museum finally exhibits these
often overlooked works of art which are only visible with the aid of the
microscope.
Qx3 Digital Microscope Project
Qx3 Digital Microscope Project microscope pictures and movies including some
from Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and others. Project uses microscope
technology similar to DigiScopes used in ZOOM. Be sure to click on the QX3
Resources and Lesson Plans to learn about other interesting aspects of this
project
High-Tech Teaching
Interesting article about tomorrow's teachers staying cutting edge by using
technology as a tool instead of a teaching gimmick. Good examples.
Invigorating Science Teaching with a High-Tech, Low-Cost Tool
Interesting article about a project’s use of digital microscopy to invigorate
science teaching for in-service and pre- service teachers and students by using
a high-tech, low-cost tool, the Qx3 which is similar to the DigiScope used in
ZOOM.
Science Kit and Boreal Laboratories' Digital Microscopy Forum
Practical, useful information about the DigiScope and its specifications and
uses from a major supplier, Science Kits and Boreal Laboratories. Includes
descriptions of what digital microscopy is, reasons for buying DigiScopes, and
rationales and suggestions for classroom use.
DigiScope Review
In-depth description, analysis, and photos of DigiScope. Includes excellent
descriptions of measurement uses, still and video production, Motic software,
field-use capabilities, plus images of honeybee legs, leaf structure, Hydra,
etc. Analysis of the capabilities and performance of DigiScopes is included.
ProjectMicro
Interesting quotations, prose, and poetry about the microscope and its uses.
References include Robert Hooke, Alexander Pope, Voltaire, James Thurber, Emily
Dickinson and many others. Enjoyable reading, e.g. Yogi Berra, “ You can observe
a lot by watching.”
|
|
