The Tech Savy Teacher

I can remember a time in school when it was time to use a microscope. Our groups would have  to crowd around the microscope just to see what was on the slides. It was a long and arduous task.  In this class, we had the opportunity to use technology for a science class. 

The digital microscope is a great tool to use in the 

classroom. It allows the teacher to capture video 

or pictures of an object as it is being observed.  The microscope is connected to a computer, and the image is then shown on the screen for multiple people to see.  

This is an example of an experiment that was done using the digital microscope.

This experiment is designed for the 4th grade science 

class using Standard 3, Objective 1.

We predicted what we thought the salt would look like under the microscope.
We predicted what the sugar would look like under the microscope.
We predicted whether the salt or the sugar would dissolve first when mixed with water.
We observed salt under the microscope.We observed sugar under the microscope.
We noted the difference between the sugar and salt crystals
We added warm water to the salt and observed it dissolving.

We added warm water to the sugar and observed it dissolving.

We compared the difference in how fast the salt dissolved and how fast the sugar dissolved.

We looked at our predictions and compared it to our observations.

These are pictures of some salt crystals we observed:

We used salt from this packet for this particular experiment:

This is a view of the crystals at 60 times the magnification:

 

These are the salt crystals at 100 times the magnification:

This is a picture at 60 times magnification of water dropped on the salt:

Here is an amazing video of water being dropped onto some salt:

We used the sugar from the Sour Patch kids bag for this particular experiment:

This is a view of the sugar at 60 times magnification:

This is a view of the sugar at 100 times magnification:

This is a view of the water and the sugar at 60 times magnification:

Here is an awesome video of water being dropped onto sugar:

All in all, this was an excellent experiment that I think students will enjoy!