MicroscopesWorkshop

MICROSCOPES WORKSHOP KS2 (Yr 5 & 6)

Seeing the fine details. Last academic year thanks to Merck

Sharp and Dohme, teachers and their pupils from eight primary

schools local to the company in the Hoddesdon area received digital

microscopes and training in how to use them.

From September 2007, five schools in Hertford are getting the same special input.Workshops are led by SETPOINT with further support for teachers. Merck Sharp and Dohme have also funded ASE membership and the CREST * Investigators for participating schools.

Now Sheila Toper and Beryl Boaden are able to offer this workshop to primary schools across Herts.

The workshop demonstrates to pupils and teachers how digital microscopes work. Beryl said how motivating the activity is for all abilities of pupils, commenting “Several pupils with reading and writing challenges have been able to join in on a par with their peers. It’s something practical and visual.Working together, strong leaders can help the team. Pupils come

to tell me how much they enjoyed it

and staff comment on their level of

engagement”. During the Microscope

Workshop, pupils find out different

ways to use light, how to focus, take

photographs and save and export

images. They use time lapse photography

to see the difference between dissolving

and disappearing and learn to use very

small units of measurement.