Biology teaching in a post virus class

Biology teachers at colleges and universities around the world are carefully working out how to teach in a post-virus world. A lot of work has been invested in planning teaching scenarios from further lockdowns to a return to the ‘new normal’. Video conferencing and teaching platforms such as Zoom, Classroom and Teams are already a daily part of teaching and learning.

Biology is one of the more difficult subjects in which to plan a new normal. The best teachers inspire their students, showing them samples of organisms at macroscopic and microscopic levels. This encourages their audience to connect biological processes all the way from global ecology to the biochemistry of a cell. The microscope is the key tool in this journey because it connects the global environment to cell biology. With most teaching laboratories closed during lockdown and field trips cancelled, inspirational teaching of biology has become really challenging. Biology teachers are intrinsically creative and many are looking for microscopes that their students could use when the teaching labs are closed.

Microscopes for $20?

Just $20 buys a contact lens that clips onto the camera of a student’s mobile phone. As a general-purpose magnifier, these are great for low magnification applications such as plant structure. With care, they can work in applications that need more magnification over a small area. However, the field of view of clip-on lenses is limited and images are usually surrounded by a black circle and out of focus at the edges. Nevertheless, this is a useful and inexpensive introduction to small animals and plants.

For a slightly larger investment, schools and colleges can purchase a digital magnifier that looks like a flashlight and connects to a computer with a USB cable or WiFi. These devices are either handheld or stand-mounted to give more stability. They often claim x1000 magnification, but in practice, the resolution is typically more like 50 microns – the thickness of a human hair. Which makes them pretty useful for electronics and insect anatomy.

Teaching biology over video

Teaching cell structure needs a resolution of 1 micron and in the past, this was only available from a laboratory compound microscope. UK startup ioLight Ltd has patented a portable microscope with a stage and transmitted illumination. This pocket-sized instrument delivers 1 micron resolution images to any smartphone or tablet ready for sharing or pasting into projects. The performance of the ioLight product is similar to that of a lab microscope with two important differences: it is portable and internet-connected.

The robust ioLight microscope fits in a jacket pocket and can easily be posted to locked-down students for socially distanced field trips at home. The powerful 1 micron resolution allows students to image animal and plant cells, protozoa and algae. In fact, anything that a college laboratory microscope can see. Its portable format makes it perfect for citizen science surveys such as Microplastics or Harmful Algal Blooms (with a proper risk assessment).

The internet connectivity of the ioLight microscope means that video platforms such as Zoom, Classroom and Teams can use it to teach microscopy online, allowing students to see clearly the instructor’s microscope screen. This exciting development allows teachers to deliver microscopy classes online and remotely. ioLight even offers a fluorescence version of its product, which allows colleges and universities to introduce students to one of the central tools of microbiology.

Who knows, perhaps your students could even tag the COVID-19 virus and find a cure.