21/11/23, 22:14 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help
Compound Microscope
Contributor: April Stokes. Resource ID: 10770
Quick! Pronounce Leeuwenhoek! Try Hooke. What do they have in
common with ancient Romans? They all had a part in creating the
microscope! Take a closer look!
CATEGORIES SUBJECT
Life Science Science
LEARNING STYLE PERSONALITY STYLE
Visual Beaver
GRADE LEVEL RESOURCE TYPE
Middle School (6-8) Quick Query
Get It!
How do you turn the image on the left (below) into the image on
the right?
With a compound microscope!
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What is a compound microscope?
A compound microscope consists of two or more double convex lenses
fixed on the two ends of a hollow cylinder.
Who invented the compound microscope?
As far back as the first century, Romans discovered that clear glass,
when held up to or over an object, had the strange quality of making the
object appear larger.
This discovery led to much experimentation during the centuries that
followed, and there are still disputes about who should be rightfully
credited with the invention of the very first compound microscope.
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It was not until the 1590s that a father and son pair of Dutch eyeglass
makers, Zacharias and Hans Jansen, began to experiment with glass
lenses.
They put several lenses in a tube. They made an intriguing discovery:
The object near the end of the tube appeared to be greatly enlarged,
much larger than any image a magnifying glass that existed at the time
could produce!
They began to sell these microscopes as novelty items. The scientific
community saw no real use for them because the maximum
magnification reached only 9x, and the images were said to have been
blurry, at best.
A century later, another Dutchman, this time a draper and scientist
named Anton van Leeuwenhoek, achieved greater success than the
Jansen family by developing ways to make the lenses more clear.
He also found ways to use more lenses within a single microscope.
He accomplished this by grinding and polishing five hundred and fifty
lenses to make his new lens tube with a magnifying power of 270x. He
could view objects one millionth of a meter in size (other microscopes of
the period could only achieve a maximum of 50x magnification).
Van Leeuwenhoek made many biological discoveries using his
microscopes. He was the first to see and describe bacteria, yeast
plants, the microcosm of life in a single drop of water, and the
circulation of blood corpuscles in capillaries.
Van Leewenhoek's work was verified and further developed by English
scientist Robert Hooke, who published the first work of microscopic
studies, Micrographia, in 1665.
Robert Hooke's detailed work, including his illustrations, further study in
microbiology in England and advanced biological science as a whole.
During the 350-plus years that have passed since Hooke made his
discoveries — such as viewing cells of a piece of cork and using thin
slices of an object to obtain the best view — the compound microscope
has evolved to allow us to see things in our homes, classrooms, and
laboratories that humans once never thought possible.
The compound microscope also inspired other modern advancements
in microbiology, including the electron microscope that allows humans
to view nanoparticles!
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How does a compound microscope work?
Watch the video below to find out.
Review the main parts and functions of a typical compound microscope.
objective lens - magnifies the image on the slide
eyepiece - allows you to see the object and also magnifies the image
mirror - reflects light from another source through the image being
observed
adjustment knob - allows you to focus the image or make it clear so
that it can be easily seen
stage - holds a slide containing the object to be viewed
stage clips - secure the slide on the stage
Check what you learned in the Got It? section.
Got It?
Now that you have read about the history, parts, and functions of a
compound microscope, test your knowledge by completing the following
activity.
Explore an amazing Virtual Microscope that lets you explore the use of
a microscope by letting you choose and examine slides and adjust the
controls. It's pretty neat!
After exploring, answer the following questions.
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21/11/23, 22:14 Elephango Educational Resources K12 Learning, Lesson Plans, Activities, Experiments, Homeschool Help
What is a compound microscope?
Who was Anton van Leeuwenhoek? What did Robert Hooke
observe under his microscope?
What is the purpose of the eyepiece in a compound microscope?
Where on a compound microscope do you place the object you
want to view?
What does the mirror of a microscope do?
The Compound Microscope Answer Key for these questions can be
found in Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar.
Continue on to the Go! section to focus on what you have learned!
Go!
Test your newly acquired knowledge!
First, take this quick quiz to review some important terms!
Now print Label the Compound Microscope (Downloadable
Resources). Label the microscope with the parts named in the word
bank.
Download Label the Compound Microscope Answer Key
(Downloadable Resources) to check your answers.
Do you have access to a compound microscope?
Now that you know how it works, try looking at everyday objects under
the microscope.
What do you notice?
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If you do not have access to a compound microscope, that's okay.
Check out the video below.
Which item surprises you the most?
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