Teacher Corner -Lesson 1


LESSON 1.  History of Microscopes

Objective: Students learn how the microscope developed and influenced scientific thought.



Teacher Notes:

 The microscope changed the world in its understanding of the importance of microorganisms.   Scientists, researchers, and doctors would finally have a tool which could guide their limited eyesight into a world full of fantastic creatures. 

 This reader helps the students look at the evolution of microscopy.  First the microscope needed to be invented and then used as a tool in research.  Students should get an appreciation of the difficulty of an invention that needed constant refinement. Even today, new and better microscopes are being created as we understand our physical world. 

In the next section we will look in detail of the optics so students can appreciate the ingenious people who invented a tool that is one of the symbols of science itself.

ANSWERS: 1.  N. Africa (Egypt, 2500BC); 2.  eye, Al-Haithan, first century; 3.  convex objective, concave eyepiece; 4.  Kepler; 5.  Galileo;  6.  Christian Huygens;  7.  simple microscope; 8.  Robert Hooke; 9.  Joseph Lister; 10.  Eriom Schrodinger; 11.  Transmission Electron Microscope; 12. 3D; 13.  Atomic Force Microscope, Magnetic Force Microscope, Scanning Near Field Optical; Spin Polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope; 14. Marcello Malphighi, histology;  15.  as a tool to aid his research in microbiology


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