Magnification 14/5/20


Hello!

This week I have been thinking about very, very small things.  Now that everyone is allowed to stay out in the park or the woods for as long as you want, perhaps you’d like to investigate some tiny things too?  It's fascinating...

That is what humans have been trying to do for a thousand years: look more and more closely at the world around us to try to find out what it is made of!  And we've found out a lot by doing it.

To see a new world of detail in your garden, the woods, or the park all you need is a glass of water (or a hand lens). 

Here is how to make your own ‘glass-of-water-magnifier’...

If you can, send photos of the best things you find to me through your class e-mail!

A magnifier like yours opens a new world of small things, but with a microscope you can see and even smaller world: the blocks (cells) that plants and animals are made of.

The bacteria that give us sore throats are ten times smaller than that, and seem like another tiny world.

And the world of viruses (like Covid19) is hundred times smaller than the world of the bacteria. 

But even viruses are enormous if you are one of the atoms and molecules that make up the air around us!

Have fun investigating tiny worlds!

Keir Mitchell