I’ve considered buying a microscope for my kids for a while now, but I’ve worried about the price and fragility of a decent model. Although the Science X®: Smartscope by Ravensburger isn’t quite as “professional-looking,” it is perfect for kids and amateurs. It’s more of a box shape. You put the thing you want to look at inside, and put your phone on top. There’s a hole that the phone camera looks through so that you can see the object magnified on your phone screen. The coolest part, though, is that since it’s on your phone you can take a picture of it!
The Science X®: Smartscope and its knobs are big enough to be easy to move, especially for younger kids, but it’s not so big/bulky that you can’t take it with you on the go. It comes with a few tools like tweezers for collecting stuff. I can’t wait to take it to the park and see what the kids find to look at.
This strikes me as a great “educational” gift that’s also fun. Everyone talks about STEM these days, and I think looking at things through a microscope is a good way to get kids excited about science.
