Kawamata Municipal Elementary School, Fukushima Prefecture
2015/5/27
On May 27, 2015, we took along our Tabletop Electron Microscope(TM3030) to Kawamata Elementary School in Fukushima Prefecture, helping out science classes for 5th-year pupils. Samples the students had gathered from the nearby river were observed first with the naked eye, then with a binocular stereoscopic microscope, then an optical microscope, allowing the children to clearly see how living things changed in appearance as they were magnified more and more. In addition, they also carried out experiments magnifying samples they had brought in, and the pill bug the children selected was also observed. Surprisingly, while nearly half the children said they hated bugs, they were all fascinated by the microscopic world of insects that they could never see normally. This project, which started with a total of 65 children from Kawamata-minami Kawamata Municipal Elementary School, Kusano, Iitoi and Usuishi Iitate Municipal elementary schools, has now expanded to a total of 109 children from Kawamata, Iizaka, and Yamakiya elementary schools, and will continue next year.