The microscope: Seeing our World more Clearly
On Friday 13 March 2015, the Royal Microscopical Society and the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers were joined at Glaziers Hall in London by over 250 school children and their teachers to celebrate 350 years of Robert Hooke's Micrographia and the wonderful scientific instrument that is, the microscope.
In collaboration with the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers, the RMS are invited Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils (along with their teachers!) to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the first published work in microscopy - 'Micrographia' by Robert Hooke.
The day was a huge success with children aged 7-14 all equally engrossed and excited as they got completely involved with every activity laid on for them. Thanks to volunteers from the RMS, WCSIM, University of the Arts, London and St Paul's School there was plenty on offer to inspire fascination and wonder in the children through science.
Students solved a 'whodunnit' mystery using their microscopes and hand lenses to look at various clues that had been left around the crime scene, they completed a quiz of microscopic views of everyday objects and food - seeing these items as they have never seen them before, they were able to use a tabletop SEM to take a much closer look at pollen, bugs and a number of other samples prompting a number of wows and gasps from all ages! Finally, a room complete with microscopes, tables full of samples and copies of Micrographia. Children flicked through the pages reading some of the old text written by Hooke and also were able to look at his wonderful images of cork, fleas, snowflakes and more, they then created their own Hooke-type images from what they could see down the microscope, and produced some brilliant results!
The best artists from the morning and afternoon sessions won a microscope to take home with them. The afternoon prizegiving was presented by the Lord Mayor of London, Alan Yarrow who also spent time with the children to see the day in action and even took part in the whodunnit mystery himself!
