With magnifying glasses and journals, children work together to examine whatever they find—from leaves and soil to pebbles and ants. They then write about or draw pictures of what they see—which gives these young scientists a literacy-skills boost.

What is magnifying glassused for

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10 uses ofmagnifying glassin laboratory

If you don’t have a magnifying glass in your home, you can find one pretty cheap and explore what other things look like up close. Make things even more scientific by handing over some crayons and paper so your child can write down what they discover. (Feel free to give them a little white smock to really set the scene.)

Are you helping your child brush their hair before bed? Sneak in some science before story time by looking at several strands of their hair and your hair up close. At normal eye level, hair looks smooth and fine—but what about up close? What does your child see? How is their hair different from your hair?

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Digital cameras have become extremely common as the prices have come down. The introduction of the CMOS sensor is one of the drivers behind the falling prices. CMOS sensors are much less expensive to manufacture than CCD sensors.

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There’s a reason we give kids journals to write things down—beyond building literacy skills. Getting children used to recording their findings sets them up for success in their science studies later in life (and gives them a head start on learning the scientific method, whether they realize it or not).

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Is your child shaking some salt onto her green beans? Before they dig in, encourage them to take a peek at a couple of those salt crystals. What do the granules look like up close? For that matter, what do the beans look like up close? (If they really can’t wait, though, let them eat—science can be put on hold for a growling tummy.)

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Next time you’re snuggling with your kids under your favorite warm blanket, grab the magnifying glass to examine the fibers keeping the blanket together. Is there a pattern to the fibers? Once they’ve had an eyeful, encourage them to take a look at other fabrics around the room to compare—like maybe their T-shirt, socks, or even the couch itself!

“At this age, children’s critical-thinking skills and fine-motor skills have developed to the point where they can start using simple tools,” says Meg Davis from KinderCare’s Education team. Magnifying glasses help kids see things they’ve never seen before, like small insects close-up. It opens up a whole new world to them, which they find pretty amazing!

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Young children’s brains are hardwired for exploration and observation—two things that just so happen to be early science skills. By around age four or five, however, their scientific abilities really start to take off because they’re old enough to start using cool scientific tools.

That’s why this week in our centers, we’re taking kids out into the fresh spring air to take a closer look at the natural world popping up around them—and when we say a closer look, we mean really close.

10 uses ofmagnifying glass

The next step is to read the value (accumulated charge) of each cell in the image. In a CCD device, the charge is actually transported across the chip and read at one corner of the array. An analog-to-digital converter turns each pixel's value into a digital value. In most CMOS devices, there are several transistors at each pixel that amplify and move the charge using more traditional wires. The CMOS approach is more flexible because each pixel can be read individually.

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CCDs use a special manufacturing process to create the ability to transport charge across the chip without distortion. This process leads to very high-quality sensors in terms of fidelity and light sensitivity. CMOS chips, on the other hand, use traditional manufacturing processes to create the chip — the same processes used to make most microprocessors. Because of the manufacturing differences, there have generally been some noticeable differences between CCD and CMOS sensors.

Both CCD (charge-coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) image sensors start at the same point — they have to convert light into electrons. If you've read the article How Solar Cells Work, you understand one technology that's used to perform the conversion. One simplified way to think about the sensor used in a digital camera (or camcorder) is to think of it as having a 2-D array of thousands or millions of tiny solar cells, each of which transforms the light from one small portion of the image into electrons. Both CCD and CMOS devices perform this task using a variety of technologies.

Based on these differences, you can see that CCDs tend to be used in cameras that focus on high-quality images with lots of pixels and excellent light sensitivity. CMOS sensors traditionally have lower quality, lower resolution and lower sensitivity. CMOS sensors are improving to the point where they reach near parity with CCD devices in some applications. CMOS cameras are usually less expensive and have great battery life.

Water and its various forms are intriguing to kids—so encourage your child to take a closer look at ice for a real “wow” experience. You both might be dazzled by the ice-crystal patterns and the shades of white and blue. Turns out a cube is pretty complex! Extend the learning even further by talking about the ways water can turn from liquid to ice and back again!