Part of Lesson Plan: Understanding Relative Sizes in Worlds We Don't See

Activity Overview / Details

Just to get students looking at and considering elements of a world that went unknown and unidentified until Robert Hooke's examination of a slice of cork, I ask students to watch the following two videos and simply record in their notes, what they believe they are observing in general detail.

I like to begin with the Harvard BioVision video entitled Inner Life- Minute Music Version and then if time permits, show the Inner Life -Super Speed Version towards the end of the lesson to give students a bearing point for what they are observing. (At the end of the lesson, they will have some further context for the video as well...won't seem so "alien")

The second video you might show as a beginning point either with the above selection or on its own is one of the classic Zoom from Atom to Universe type videos. You can find many of these online, but this one actually annotates the items being observed in much the same fashion as our following activities within this lesson. You pick what works best for you and your students!