3 minute read
Looking closely at the ear of a bearded dragon, Anthony Artist
Looking closely at the ear of a bearded dragon
How technology has helped Anthony Artist to gain new perspectives in science lessons
Microscopes are great for looking at things closely, but by the time the slide has been arranged, and you have focused in, the teaching moment might have passed. Magnifying glasses also have their place, but magnifying power is usually poor and usage is clumsy. Enter technology. iPads are now commonplace in classrooms, and picture quality over the last few years has given SLR (single lens reflex) cameras a run for their money. We photographed a bearded dragon using the camera from an iPad Air, exhibiting wonderful definition showing the spikes and scales around its head that give the ‘bearded’ effect.
But we can look even closer. iPads allow us to zoom in, and if we look closely at the image we can see the ear, which is the hole in the head to the right of the eye. We can even see the thin white tympanic membrane, or eardrum, separating the external from the middle ear. But can we see even closer? Can we do this quickly to maximise the impact of a teaching and learning moment?
I am fortunate enough to have in my science lab a 75 inch Legamaster interactive touch screen monitor. I usually connect it to my laptop to play movies and explain activities. I also have a visualizer attached, and that is useful for science demonstrations. If that was not enough, I also had an Apple TV installed recently just to add to the technologies. Might it be possible to combine my array of tech items to look even closer? I invite science experts into the classroom on
a frequent basis, and on one occasion the visitor was asked to bring in a range of animals to support the ‘Diversity of Life’ unit of study. The unit focuses on making observations of animals and comparing the ‘diversity of life’ in different habitats. We can touch and hold many of the animals, but we do not want to get that close to some of the more exotic animals – tarantulas and scorpions, for instance. The class sizes in school are generally small, and students can see the animals reasonably closely, but is this a good chance to look even closer and enhance student learning and outcomes?
Using the camera option on the iPad allowed me to create a roaming viewfinder. I linked up the iPad to the Apple TV using the mirroring option, which was then linked to the gigantic Legamaster. I had just created a live roaming feed! Moreover, after taking photographs, they could be instantly displayed on the screen. But it gets better. I can zoom in and look even closer. Back to the ear of the bearded dragon. By combining the technologies, I was able to zoom in to the ear and display it in high resolution one metre wide. And yes, looking that closely we could clearly see the tympanic membrane.
My visitor also brought in a number of other animals to support the unit of study. We had a rabbit, African bullfrog, hedgehog, tortoise, owl and python. My personal favourite was one of the smallest creatures: the millipede. This is where we really benefited from the combination of technologies. We were able to see it curl up into a spiral, and then uncurl
and walk. We could count the body segments. We could see that there are two pairs of legs per body segment (not just one, like centipedes). But more importantly, we could count the number of legs – and dispel the myth that a millipede has a million legs!
