Hunting down Paramecia with an iPhone!

As the year ends, I am republishing the Opinion Drive-thru's seven most viewed posts of 2014.  This is #2. It is probably my favorite from the year.  It was completely spontaneous as probably only an hour elapsed between being invited to microbiology, taking the pictures, and composing the post. I think I got some nice photos with my iPhone.

On Friday, MHS microbiology teacher Gerry Meloche contacted me to say that there was considerable excitement in his class.  For a microscope exercise requiring students to identify paramecia, he had added a new dimension.  The students were using their iPhones to photograph and video record the microbes before they scooted out of view.  This helped with the identification, but it also generated great collaboration and enthusiasm.  As the photos below indicate, the images the students were capturing could be mirrored on an Apple TV and projected to a screen.  As I reported in a past blog post, Gerry also can show live images through a microscope using a device I was introduced to at the ADE Institute in 2013.