Microscopes, magnifiers, and lenses to study nature & materials close up.
Good children's microscopes are really hard to find. Some might say, impossible. The lenses are usually plastic and poor quality. The highest magnifications are almost useless. Getting a good focus can be hard. The supplied slides are boring. And so on. We find the MicroPro to be just about acceptable. Or consider getting a digital hand-held microscope, which is great for studying rocks, leaves, bugs, the back of your hand, or bits of your head, the computer monitor screen (see the individual colours in the pixels), or even your own eye!
The 'classical' microscope requires that specimens be cut into very thin slices and mounted on slides. This might tax the enthusiasm of some children, so the afore-mentioned digital hand-held microscope avoids that - as does the stereoscopic microscope. Although the magnification is only 20x, this is adequate for getting up close & personal with bugs, etc. Now if you want to view plant cells or bacteria, a magnification of a few hundred would be better. Consider the P3-A or the SCM-200. More..
![R+J Beck Microscope, from Bedford College [vintage]](http://curiousminds.co.uk/image/cache/data/Instruments/Beck_13362-125x125.JPG "R+J Beck Microscope, from Bedford College [vintage]")
