Kids Investigate the Microscope

You might think, like I did, that you need a quality microscope (which can be expensive) in order to "see anything". However, as I found out, even an inexpensive microscope will serve the elementary student just fine. Last Christmas, my son received an inexpensive microscope and telescope set from his Grandmother; she paid twenty dollars for the boxed-set. I thought for sure we would not be able to utilize the microscope for our microscope-explorations, but when we finally got slides to use with the thing, we discovered that the cheap microscope worked beautifully! And because it is so inexpensive, I don't have to worry too much about my youngsters damaging expensive equipment.

These are great resources to accompany the study.

Microscope Printables
About.com is one of my favorite resources, because they're accurate, and FREE! This is a set of worksheets, use them all, or just the ones that suit your family.

Parts of a Microscope
Learn all the different parts of the microscope.

Microscope-Microscope.org
A good resource for all your microscope-study needs.

Micromania
This is a great activity, with a printable worksheet, that involves exploring the internet with given sites, in order to answer questions about the microscope.

GreatScopes
Lots of microscope activities here at GreatScopes.