Bugscope session review.

[Margo Gill-Linscott]

I recently worked with a school in Menlo Park, Ca. to provide an introduction to SEM via a Bugscope presentation.  It was my first experience with this kind of activity and my personal take on it is that, yes, kids like to see things magnified but unless there is time to really allow students to participate in magnifying, moving the bug around, adjusting focus and contrast....it doesn't capture their interest in the way a real instrument which they can touch would. 

 

The environment we were in was a classroom set up with a large ‘movie’ screen in front and chairs in a half circle in front of the screen.  A two hour session was scheduled with Scott from Bugscope.  The two hours were divided into three parts to accommodate three half hour session of 16 to 20 students for a 'Discovery Science' day.

 

The things that worked were:  one adult ran the computer, one stood at the screen with a pointer (me) to show what was going on with the SEM.....discussing how the image was being moved, etc. and taking questions from students. Questions have to be typed into the computer and waiting for a response was a bit slow for this age group so I tried to answer as many questions as I could verbally.  We did ask some questions via the computer.  Scott is very quick and very knowledgeable about the bugs.

 

A third adult handed out images previously printed on which the students documented what the bug they were looking at was, the magnification, and what part of the bug they had in their image.  They were quite enthusiastic about having something in hand to take home or to take to school for show and tell. 

 

The kids were young, K-6th grade.  I think the kids had a good time but this age group does get a bit restless and were ready to go at the end of the half hour session.  We only had one computer keyboard which limited the direct interaction from the kids although one or two interested students came up to move things around and were shown how focus and magnification worked.  The session may have been a bit short but I don’t think it would be easy to give kids control of anything at these ages.  They did like the bugs so it was a good introduction.

 

Any comments from your experience or questions you might have regarding mine are welcome.

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Margo Gill-Linscott
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