How do brain scientists use microscopes?
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Alignment
3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
Learning Outcomes
- Students learn what a microscope is.
- Students learn what microscopes are used for.
- Students learn the different parts of a microscope.
Discussion Questions
1. Why do scientists use tools?
2. What can you use to look at small things?
3. What are some things that are too small to see with your own eyes?
4. What discoveries do you think scientists were able to make after the invention of the microscope?
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Vocabulary
Neuroscientist: a scientists who studies the brain and nervous system
Nervous system: part of an animal body that receives and interpret information from the five senses, and responds to these stimuli with action plans; in humans and other vertebrates, it includes the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves
Brain: an organ located in the skull of human and other vertebrates, that serves as the control center for the nervous system.
Neurons: brain cells responsible for sending and receiving messages. The brain’s post office!
Microscope: an instrument that allows people to look at objects that are too small to be seen by just the human eye
Microscope slides: a thin piece of glass or plastic used to hold objects to look at under a microscope
Light source: the place where the light in your microscope comes from; it can be a bulb, a LED, or sunlight reflected by a mirror.
Magnification: a number that tells you how much bigger or smaller the image of an object is than the object itself
Zoom: a mechanism in the microscope that allows you to change the magnification (size) of your image
Focus: a mechanism in the microscope that allows you to generate a sharp image of the object you are interested in; the focus moves some lenses inside the microscope up and down
Coarse focus: the knob on the side of the microscope that is used to focus and moves the microscope up and down
Fine focus: the knob on the side of the microscope that is used to finely tune the focus
Lens: a piece of curved glass or plastic; lenses can be used to create images like in cameras, microscopes and telescopes; for example, a magnifying glass is a lens
Eyepiece: the lens at the top of the microscope that you look through
Objective: the lens in the microscope that is closer to the sample; objective lenses are chosen to produce a magnified (enlarged) image of the sample
Gear: a set of toothed wheels that, in the microscope, move lenses with respect to each other
Review
Microscopes are tools scientists use to look at things that are too small to see with our eyes.
Microscopes are made up of different parts that work together.
The lenses in the microscope are what allow us to magnify the image - just like a magnifying glass!
You don’t have to be an engineer to know how to make a microscope!
