Common issues

Potential solutions

Student unfamiliarity with equipment

Students will probably not have had much experience with microscopes beforehand and will, therefore, need additional help with microscope terminology (ie. the different parts of the microscope) and how to focus it correctly.

To ensure that students feel supported and that lesson time is used effectively, students should be given a clear set of steps as a method, they should have the technique modelled for them by their teacher and they should view a high-quality tutorial video beforehand.

It may be desirable for pupils to preload the microscopy methodology through a flipped learning technique (e.g. viewing and note-taking tutorials and undertaking quizzes on https://www.theeverlearner.com/). This, combined with the other approaches, should ensure that students feel as supported as possible.

Magnification

Students should be reminded that the total magnification of the microscope is the magnification of the objective lens multiplied by the magnification of the objective lens (total magnification = eyepiece magnification x objective lens magnification).