Lesson Plans

STR Micro-Lessons™ offer great ideas for launching lessons using images from handheld microscopes:

  • STR Micro-Lessons
  • STR Interactive Lesson – Leaves

These lesson plans were developed by teachers using the ProScope, Scope on a Rope, and Dlite Microscope:

  • Observing School Supplies (grades K – 3)
  • Steelworks (grades K – 5)
  • Plant Parts (grades K-4)
  • Insects & Spiders (grade 1)
  • Owl Pellets (grade 1)
  • Rocks, Sand, & Weathering (grade 2)
  • Seed Germination – Timelapse (grades 3-5)
  • Scientific Sketching (grade 4)
  • Wildflower Seeds (grade 4)
  • Plant Detectives (grades 4 – 5)
  • Something New, Something Used, Something Borrowed, Something Reused (grades 4 – 6)
  • Arthropods (grades 6 – 8)
  • Mealworm Environmental Effects (grades 6-8)
  • Drowsy Drosophila (grades 10-12)
  • Chemistry – Silver Nitrate Reaction with Copper (grades 10-12)
  • Microscope Music Video Project (grades 9-12)

Follow these links for more lesson ideas, lesson plans, and resources related to handheld microscopes:

    • Analyzing Soil Samples
    • Chemical Changes Making Foam and Using Indicators
    • Color Theory
    • Comparing Animal and Plant Cell Structure
    • Looking at Ol’ Crusty – Crawfish Examination
  • Microbes From a Hay Infusion
  • Micro-organisms: Past and Present
  • Mineral Matters
  • Mosquitoes: Their Place On The Planet
  • Mystery Powders
  • Scope On A Rope at Louisiana State University
  • Secrets of Sand
  • Solving Mysteries Using Paper Chromatography
  • Squidology
  • Trailing the Snail
  • Understanding Cell Division
  • Case of the Bad Lunch (9th-12th grade)
  • Case of the Falling Gargoyle (6th-12th grade)
  • The Great Garden Dilema (5th -10th grade)
  • On the Surface (5th-8th grade)
  • Sock it To Me (5th-8th grade)
  • Soda Sabotage (5th-8th grade)
  • Solving the Liquid Trail (5th-10th grade)
  • Some Like it Hot (5th-8th grade)
  • Spot the Fake (5th-8th grade)
  • Water Magic (5th-8th grade)

In the lessons described at these links, substitute a handheld microscope for “magnifying glass”.

  • Crystal Creations
  • What is a Lichen?

Here are a few of the many lesson ideas that are included in the School Technology Resources Teacher Resource CD for SCALAR products.

  1. Use the handheld microscope to examine materials which have poor and good water absorbency, and formulate and test a hypothesis which predicts absorbency based on handheld microscope close-ups of a material.
    Allow a piece of fruit to decay, and observe the growth and structure of the resulting mold.
    Go on a seed hunt and collect as many different seeds as you can find, as well as a leaf or flower from the same plants. Study the seeds to try to determine how they travel (carried by wind, by getting attached to animals or insects, floating on water, etc.).
  2. Create a bulletin board matching capture images of the seeds with 1X images of the plants that they came from.
  3. Study spiders to determine whether they are “wanderers” or “web-spinners”.Wandering spiders have 2 claws on each foot and very good eyesight. Web-spinners have poor eyesight but are very sensitive to vibrations, and have three claws on each foot.Obtain a collection of live spiders, each in separate jars, and ask students to devise a way to test which spiders have good eyesight and which are more sensitive to vibration. Test the spiders and classify each as “wanderer” or “web-spinner”. Then use the handheld microscope to examine the claws and find out how accurate the classification was.
  4. Your handheld microscope can be used to measure the air pollution in your area.Hang a strip of 2″ or 3″ wide masking tape outside your window, with the sticky side facing out. Leave it for a few days, so that it can pick up particles in the air. Then bring it in and compare it (using a 50X or 100x lens) to a fresh piece of tape.You will see different types of particles on the tape that was exposed to the air, and the quantity and size of these are one indicator of the quality of the air in your area.