When Doug Weibel spotted an $85 microscope at Toys â??Râ? Us, he immediately bought it and brought it home for his children. His children started magnifying everything they could get their hands on – wires, sponges, insects – capturing images and recording movies on a computer linked to the microscope.
It struck Weibel, however, that this was not only fun, but also educational.
Last December, Weibel, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, decided to start an outreach program called MicroExplorers to bring microscopes to classrooms and after-school activities.