The Ultimate Guide to Your Microscope

Get our your microscope and take a close-up look at a tiny world! This book by two award-winning science authors shows you how. 

Looking at little things—things too small to see with the naked eye—can be big fun. It’s certainly smart science, and award-winning authors Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone are here to show kids the basics of creating their own professional-quality slides and using their own microscopes. A whole world will open up to budding scientists as they learn to identify the microscope’s different pieces, practice focusing, and prepare different kinds of samples for viewing. Illustrated throughout with photomicrographs (pictures taken through a microscope), and complete with a reproducible form for documenting specimens, this fascinating, in-depth guide explains how to put bugs, water, food, plants and pollen, and even parts of the body (like fingernails) under the scope for a close-up glimpse. Of course, there are troubleshooting answers to common questions and safety instructions for parents and teachers, too.

Starred Review. Grade 5–9—Through this fun and inviting book, readers can begin to explore the world using a microscope. Students are encouraged to learn the basics in the two first chapters and then undertake the 41 hands-on activities in the next eight chapters. Activities are presented in manageable one- or two-page uniformly formatted modules. Each one starts with an attention-grabbing title, such as "Charlotte's Parlor" or "Sounds Fishy to Me," and is then divided into three sections covering "What You Need," "What to Do," and "What Did You See?" Twenty-first century learners will like the crime-scene-investigation themes and the many informational sidebars and full-color visuals integrated into the text, including photomicrographs.—Caroline Geck, Newark Public Schools, NJ
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