I think I fell under a lucky star when our friends Jim, Jennie, and their son Ethan gave our family this microscope as a gift. Jim is a scientist/engineer and like me loves to look at slides under a microscope. I am very fond of my good old fashion microscope but there are some problems using a traditional microscope when you have multiple people all wanting to see the same thing at the same time. This isn’t a problem when you are looking at something that is going to stay stationary. However, when you are looking at specimens that move like protozoa it is a problem. One child might see it and by the time the next child is in focus the object has swam out of sight. I love my Aven Microscope because it is easy to use, you just plug it into the usb port on your computer. It has multiple magnifications for viewing. I also really like that it allows you to photograph. This is wonderful for printing and keeping record of the specimens you have viewed. It also captures video for live specimens. It is definitely one of my favorite teaching gadgets.
