Educational Gift

This year your kids are old enough to want a gift they can learn from, a microscope. A good compound microscope will teach the skill of microscopy. Digital microscopes are great fun but unless there are eyepieces to look through the student is not learning how to use a microscope. Microscopy is a skill they will need if they are to go on to study the biological sciences. With a microscope you get what you pay for. The optics in a microscope will determine the price. Other important features are a fine focus, not just a coarse focus; a light source, not just a mirror; and a mechanical stage, not just clips. Binocular (2 eyepieces) is preferable to monocular all other things being equal. A trinocular microscope will be great if the student would like add a microscope camera to save the images. If a trinocular is beyond your budget choose a DIN (standard) microscope and a microscope camera can be exchanged for the eyepiece. A good microscope will be an investment which will last many years.