Recap-Microscopy techniques and tools for 8th and 9th graders

[Mayandi Sivaguru]

Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal Dear List, I thank you all very much for your time, suggestions, comments and help. The information is more than sufficient to start this process.

I would also like to bring it to your kind attention to OSA, the Optical Society of America ( http://www.osa.org/)and its sponsored site "Optics for teens" ( http://www.opticsforteens.org/tutorials/opticaldiagnosis.html) great resource for this type of activity. The OSA foundation is very receptive and very helpful with my request in sending the educational materials and support for this initiative.

Thank you all once again
Shiv

Here is the recap of responses:


Responses to the post on Confocal Microscopy List server on “Microscopy techniques and tools for 8th and 9th graders” as of Feb 15 2008.

Original Post:

Dear members of the list, We are planning to offer a one week summer program for 8th and 9th graders on “Optical microscopy and imaging techniques”. I kindly request your input on any available book or literature at this level with basic geometrical optics, optical path, image formation, contrasting techniques including polarization information and any available easy to understand tools and kits (especially for diffraction patterns) that could be used for the students to make mini projects.

Thanking you in advance and I greatly appreciate your suggestions and recommendations.
Shiv

Mayandi Sivaguru, PhD, PhD
Microscopy Facility Manager
8, Institute for Genomic Biology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1206 West Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801 USA

Office: 217.333.1214
Fax: [phone]
[hidden email]
http://core.igb.uiuc.edu

 

Dear Shiv,

 
 I really like the introductory book by Doug Murphy: Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging.

May be too advanced for 9th graders, but some of the chapters on basic principles may be accessible.

A technical book, perhaps a bit dated (pre-digital era) is Robert F Smith: Microscopy and Photomicrography: a working manual. This one is really about the parts of the microscope, and how to set it up, etc.

Otherwise, from Dover books: George Stehli: The microscope and how to use it; Richard Headstrom's Adventures with a microscope (sample preparation and examples), and BK Johnson's Optics and Optical Instruments (has one chapter on basic optics, and one the light microscope). All retail for around US $ 10. You can check reviews on Amazon.com

Finally, there are the beautiful web sites:


http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer
 

http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/


http://www.microscopyu.com /

One book that might fit nicely between the ones I already mentioned is "Introduction to Light Microscopy" by Bradbury and Bracegirdle. Microscopy Handbook Series Vol 42 (Springer). It's 100 pages, and might be just the level you need for your students.


Julio.

--

Julio Vazquez,

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Seattle, WA 98109-1024

 

Please take a look at Caroline Schooley’s work at Project Micro, an outreach of the Microscopy Society of America.  There is an extensive bibliography there, reviewing books, videos and other materials aimed at school-aged children.

See:  http://www.microscopy.org/ProjectMicro/PMHomePage.html

You also might want to look at:  http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/gems/GEMmicro.html

Doug

Douglas W. Cromey, M.S. - Assistant Scientific Investigator

Dept. of Cell Biology & Anatomy, University of Arizona

1501 N. Campbell Ave, Tucson, AZ  85724-5044 USA

 

I would also recommend Caroline Schooley's work on Project Micro. 

http://www.microscopy.org/ProjectMicro/PMHomePage.html

The Private Eye by Kerry Ruef is also very useful. It is more on critical thinking using a 5x loupe as a tool.

Patty
Patty Jansma
 Imaging Facility Manager
ARLDN
University of AZ
Tucson, AZ 85721

 

Hi, Mayandi
Optimizing Light Microscopy has tons of little experiments scattered through it.  We have a few copies (less than 10) left.  Also, don't forget Caroline Schooley's wonderful GEM progam.  I'm sure that there are a lot of things there.  (Caroline Schooley<[hidden email]>)

Very there are three experiments which I strongly support:
a. Use of hand lens to differentiate between object and the image formed by a lens.  I have my students find the focal length by capturing the image of the over head lights on the desk top.  Once they know the focal length, have them look through the lens at their fingernail at the following distances:  inside the focal length; then, holding lens steady, move finger further out.  At focal length finger will disappear; beyond focal length it will reappear, but upside down.  You can tease them about "At no time did your finger leave your hand!"  
This expt is great for talking about the 4 General Cases of Lenses, finding focal point, measuring focal length, On-axis versus off-axis imaging, and focal plane)
b. For diffraction, you can actually just shine light past the edge of a single-edge razor blade and image on the wall.  Also, if you have the kids VERY gently separate their fingers, hold their hands about 10" from their faces, and view a distant light source, they will see Fraunhofer fringes between their fingers.
c.  Then there is Pol... this is a real treat.  I have a big set of polars (I think you can get them from Edmund Scientific) that are about 10" x 10". I put one down on an overhead projector (you need to use the old-fashioned ones with the big boxy base)  then use something like a shoe box to create a spacer, then put the other one on top, with a weight.  That gives me a little "Pol Theater" in which I can do all sorts of experiments. The result is projected on the wall or a screen
 I usually start with something like a clear plastic party plate that has a pattern embossed.  Show them the plate in regular light (clear, no color) then between crossed polars, projected onto the screen. The results are really dramatic. The color is directly related to the stress  and different thicknesses resulting from the molding process.  This opens a wonderful discussion on how fast light travels through different materials (a great time to do the glass rod in a beaker of water trick and Snell's Law), then refractive index (an important optical property used in crime labs to tell where glass comes from in a crime scene).  That leads to the discussion of birefringence (different RI sitting in different direction) which the treasured Shinya Inoue so graphically illustrated by cutting two long rectangles of wood: one WITH the grain and one AGAINST the grain (aobut 1" x 1" x 8").  I think there was a hole drilled across the short end so that the wood could be suspended from a  chord, like a chime. Each block was then hit with a rubber mallet.  They make very different sounds, depending on what the impulse wave encounters (with or against the grain).  The analogy can then be made for light.  By the way, of course, Shinya being Shinya, he stained and finished).   There are a lot of follow-on experiments:  making optical wedges with cellophane tape, optical additon and subtraction, etc.   Also, if you have access to microscopes, there are baby cameras that can be place in lieu of the eyepiece.  There are a whole raft of experiments on growing crystals under the microscope both between crossed polars and in normal brightfield, and, even if you don't do the Pol unit, the kids will get a big kick out them.

I hope that this was helpful.

Best regards,
Barbara Foster, President

Microscopy/Microscopy Education
7101 Royal Glen Trail, Suite A
McKinney TX 75070
P: [phone]
Skype: fostermme
W: www.MicroscopyEducation.com

 

We run a school outreach program.  I'm at ACMM20 right now

so can't check on what we have, but you might like to contact

Tony Romeo ([hidden email]) who is the

coordinator of the course.  For diffraction, a very good demo

is to use some sort of fine mesh (an EM grid is good) in front

of a laser pointer.  You can show the effects of different mesh

sizes, and the same mesh with red and green lasers.

 

For diffraction in the microscope, the Abbe Diffraction Kit

simulation is available for free download on my website

http://www.guycox.com/diffkit/diffkit.htm but it might be

a bit too advanced for 8th / 9th grade (though a schoolboy

-my son - did the coding).

 

 Guy

Optical Imaging Techniques in Cell Biology
by Guy Cox    CRC Press / Taylor & Francis
    http://www.guycox.com/optical.htm
______________________________________________
Associate Professor Guy Cox, MA, DPhil(Oxon)
Electron Microscope Unit, Madsen Building F09,
University of Sydney, NSW 2006

Hello Sivaguru,

 

I would like to suggest you to go through the site

 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/primer/basics.htm

 

http://www.microscopyu.com/

 

http://www.bio.uci.edu/academic/grad/Basic%20Training/Microscopy1_files/frame.htm

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/light-microscope1.htm

 

In addition, I shall send some files to you by mail.

 

Regards,

 

Gene Maverick, Application Specialist

Nikon Cell and Molecular Imaging Group.

Edmund Optics sells various kits. Carolina Biological Supply (www.carolina.com ) sells lots of microscopy slide sets - hopefully a few will get the ADD crowd for focus on your session. You might also get some pointers from Ron Vale at http://www.microscopy4kids.org/

The Royal Microscopical Society put out 49 short (~120 pages) inexpensive (~$20 new) handbooks, see http://www.rms.org.uk/other-publications.shtml and www.amazon.com (contact the RMS for the list of titles, then amazon.com for any that the RMS does not have in stock). Titles included Introduction to Light Microscopy, Polarization Microscopy.

You might also be able to get reprints (pdf?) from the RMS or Zeiss of a Proc RMS article in the Zeiss centenary issue on diffraction patterns in the back focal plane, and how to manipulate resolution by blocking parts of the pattern. RMS' InFocus (the successor of Proc RMS) may also be a good venue to publish your project in.

George

George McNamara, Ph.D.
University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
Image Core
Miami, FL 33010
[hidden email]
[hidden email]
305-243-8436 office
http://home.earthlink.net/~pubspectra/
http://home.earthlink.net/~geomcnamara/

Mayandi Sivaguru, PhD, PhD
Microscopy Facility Manager
8, Institute for Genomic Biology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1206 West Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801 USA

Office: 217.333.1214
Fax: [phone]
[hidden email]
http://core.igb.uiuc.edu