Post by: Steven Compton, Ph.D., Executive Director, MVA Scientific Consultants
RBES is one of the few STEM certified elementary schools in the state of Georgia and on Tuesday night they had an open house with exhibits setup for students and parents to come and participate with hands on learning activities. I volunteered on behalf of MVA and the Georgia Microscopical Society.
The MVA/GMS table housed a traditional compound microscope with a series of slides that I had growing up as a kid. Their favorite slide was the onion skin. The fifth graders are learning all about cells in depth right now, so that was right up their alley!
The table also had images on display including some high magnification images of a scorpion and some cool 3D images of bugs, fly ash, paper, and mineral fibers. The main attraction, however, was the hand held digital microscope which was attached to my laptop and mirrored on a monitor so they could see whatever they held the microscope up to.
Some of the things I had out on the table included a scorpion, wasp, fly, dragonfly wings, cotton fibers, a piece of glass, and a mint that fell on the floor for exactly 5 seconds (fans of the 5 second rule may wish to look away). Several of the kids quickly learned that their options weren’t limited to those items and used the microscope to look at the table, their hands, their clothes, pretty much anything within reach of the USB cable. The pictures below were all taken by the students!
The STEAM night ran from 6PM to 8PM and I had kids and adults passing my table without any break in activity all night long, often with a line of about half a dozen people behind them. There were small kids (I had to get a step stool) and big kids (adults who were just as excited as the students); and they all couldn’t thank me enough for being there and sharing with them “what we do” at MVA. I’m looking forward to next year’s STEAM Night!
The pictures each student took that night can be downloaded below by looking up the three digit number on the card that was given to them that night.