Posted by
Keith Morris on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/A-digital-microscope-for-kids-any-recommendations-tp7082751p7090001.html
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Following on from others who have posted with similar recommendations and
comments:
A video microscope is a good idea for a 7 year old. Young children can have
real problems focussing down a microscope, so in many respects the old £80
PC based USB2 Digital Blue QX-5 [an updated version of the USB Intel QX-3]
was better for them, as despite the poor VGA image quality it was easy to
view on the PC screen, looked like a neat toy [because it was], and it had a
few fun options like a detachable camera tube and time-lapse capability.
However the QX-5 is obsolete now for camera and software, and not worth
buying. Digital Blue were thinking of introducing the QX-7 video microscope
that has 1024x1024 resolution and glass lenses, and that might appear in
2012 [it was slated for Xmas 2011]. Otherwise a cheap mono dissecting
microscope is a good buy for under tens, as it's ideal for insects, small
house stuff and pond life Younger kids can have real problems focussing with
a stereo dissecting microscope, so mono versions are made for primary
schools. However a decent magnifying glass can serve almost as well, and
they cost pennies from eBay. Although I loved my little toy compound
microscope as a kid and still have it, it was used very infrequently as
sadly it only came with one slide :'frogs blood', and it's image quality was
worse than the QX-5. Digital microscopes main problem is that the video
camera is often too fuzzy for live samples that move about, and it becomes
obsolete so quickly - although young kids will get bored of it long before
that anyway once they have tried everything, done everything, although they
can have a lot of fun with them initially. Talk to people who supply
schools/homes and colleges via their website support as they know their
video cameras, microscopes and young customers - I'm used to the UK schools
sector.
I have written a simple pdf on buying a cheap microscope for home use [based
on similar discussions many years ago on the microscopy.com listserver]:
http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/_asset/file/buying-a-cheap-microscope-for-home.pdfand it has links to other sites specifically discussing microscopes for
kids.
It's on our "Optical Microscope Enthusiast Sites" section of
http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/external-website-linksA compound microscope is more suited to teenagers and young adults, but they
need a lot of decent samples to view and a reasonable quality microscope -
for them get the microscope either second hand or a decent 'schools' model.
I've tried buying prepared slides created for schools and the quality was
pretty poor, so I've amassed a selection of slides I've either made myself
[animal fur, fibres, peacock feathers, beach sand, volcanic ash, crystals]
or vintage Victorian slides from eBay that can be of very high quality [that
cost around £5 to £10 each, e.g. I have the stem of the hop, the cricket
gizzard, a bed Bug, cocoon of the tiger moth, Polycystina/Diatoms, etc..].
Plus you can get 'micro-fossils' sand from eBay that have microscopic snail
shells and coral fragments, so using a slide/coverslip they can prepare
there own specimens - although these do really benefit from a microscope
with phase contrast. Compound microscopes can view small living things like
dust mites collected from carpet edges using Sellotape [they actually look
quite cute and move slowly on the sticky stuff] or dead insects [e.g.
compound eye and wings]. I also have a few 'micro-photographs' in the style
of JB Dancer, although mine are 1990s reproductions. If you have Photoshop
Elements 9 or CS4 you can get older kids to stitch together multiple fields
to recreate the entire tissue section [which they seem to quite enjoy doing
once or twice - they are just learning techniques]. My microscope sample
collection is aimed at A level schoolkids [age 16-18].
Regards
Keith
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Keith J. Morris,
Molecular Cytogenetics and Microscopy Core,
Laboratory 00/069 and 00/070,
The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics,
Roosevelt Drive,
Oxford OX3 7BN,
United Kingdom.
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 287568
Email:
[hidden email]
Web-pages:
http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/molecular-cytogenetics-and-microscopy-----Original Message-----
From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:
[hidden email]] On
Behalf Of Nico Stuurman
Sent: 11 December 2011 18:50
To:
[hidden email]
Subject: Re: A digital microscope for kids - any recommendations?
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Hi John and others,
In addition to the options you listed:
- Celestron has a microscope with build-in screen (
http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=81&ProdID=605 ). No hook-up
with TV or computer needed. It can save images on a memory card. Real glass
lenses, nicely build. List is ~$300, but Costco had them for $200.
Celestron also has cheaper microscopes that hook up to a computer (at least
some of which work with Micro-Manager;).
There is a real benefit of not having any screen whatsoever, since there are
fewer parts to break. Radio Shack has tiny little microscopes with build-in
LED (
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2179604 ).
~$12. They work alright, but my kids do not use them much (if at all).
The Brock Magiscope (
http://www.magiscope.com/ ) is on my christmas
wishlist. It is a purely mechanical microscope (single eyepiece), always on,
no batteries needed. I imagine that a kid would have one of these in their
room and be enticed to use it regularly since it is so easy to get going.
They had a lot of these at the San Francisco science fair a few weeks back
and the image quality was amazingly good. Also very rugged design that
should be able to withstand abuse. Starting price $125 (can add more optics
later).
Best,
Nico
> This is not a confocal question, but I figure the people here might have
some good experience with this. I have a 7-year old nephew who says he wants
to find a cure cancer someday. I figure the best Christmas gift for him this
year would therefore be a decent children's microscope. My problem is that
there seems to be hundreds of different kids microscope brands, some with
just eyepieces, some that can be interfaced to a computer via USB, etc. Does
anyone here have any recommendations for one model brand over another?
>
> Ron Vale makes a good argument for having kids go straight to digital
microscopes instead of using eyepieces (and many modern research grade
microscopes don't require eyepieces either):
>
>
http://microscopy4kids.org/>
http://microscopy4kids.org/webpage/pages/whydiglookma.html>
> My only issue with this is that my nephew does not have access to a
computer of his own. I think what would be better is a kids microscope that
hooks up to a television screen directly, and these do exist. For example:
>
>
http://www.bonpal.com/product/usb-microscope/bp-m8200t.html> (no commercial interest)
>
> And the other great thing about a pocket TV microscope like that is that
it has a built in LED light source. So, what do you think? This is isn't so
different from when list server members ask for opinions on various confocal
microscopes, is it? Commercial responses offline to me are welcome as well.
>
> Thanks, and a happy upcoming winter holiday to all confocalists out there!
>
>
> John Oreopoulos
> Research Assistant
> Spectral Applied Research
> Richmond Hill, Ontario
> Canada
> www.spectral.ca