Turn Your Cellphone Into a Pocket Microscope: 9 Things to Explore this School Year

A leaf may appear simple from afar, but closer inspection reveals an intricate network of veins and channels.

Launch a regular camera of your smartphone to observe a fresh leaf's surface, taking note of its shape, color and vein structure. You may notice its overall form, hues and any larger veins visible therein.

With a phone microscope, the smaller branching veins and surface textures become much clearer to see.

Lower magnification works well here because it allows you to see enough of the leaf structure at once without zooming too deeply into any one small spot.

Flowers are captivating subjects for photography, yet their petals become even more fascinating when seen up close.

Under normal camera lighting conditions, phone camera images display only the color and shape of flowers; when magnified they reveal subtle ridges, cells, pollen particles and fine surface details that become evident under magnification.

Start out at 100X to keep some of the petal structure visible before zooming up if you wish to focus on minute details.

Under magnification, insects' wings make an intriguing subject to study.

From a distance, wings may appear transparent or colored; up close, however, their intricate networks of veins, repeating patterns, and minute surface structures begin to come into view.

Utilize lower magnification first in order to get a sense of the overall structure before zooming closer.

Wherever possible, preferring to observe naturally shed wings or already dead insects over disturbing living ones is always preferable.

Your T-shirt, school uniform, backpack and pencil case could all make great microscope samples.

Fabric may appear continuous to the naked eye; but magnification reveals its true composition as individual fibers woven or knitted together.

This range provides you with a closer view of individual fibers while making fabric construction simple to understand.

A printed textbook page looks perfectly smooth from an average viewing distance.

Under magnification, printed letters and images reveal tiny dots, uneven ink edges and fibers making up paper itself.

Start at 150X for looking at printed characters, then increase magnification if you wish to focus more on ink and paper structures.

Coins contain many tiny details that may easily go overlooked.

Your phone camera may provide the ability to capture an entire coin, while a microscope allows for closer examination of individual letters, scratches, textures and signs of wear.

Antique coins can be particularly fascinating, with their surfaces often bearing signs of use over the years.

Coins typically feature relatively large surface features, so the highest magnification may not always be necessary.

A great way to add a scientific element into an observation is with crystals and minerals.

Salt, sugar and small mineral samples all reveal distinctive shapes when examined more closely.

Your regular phone camera might just see them as random dots or grains; under magnification, their edges and geometric structures become much clearer.

Magnification depends on the size and composition of your sample; start at 100X and work your way closer as necessary.

For some of the best microscope subjects, everyday surfaces make an excellent subject without collecting anything additional.

Consider looking around your desk or classroom.

Pencils, erasers, painted surfaces, cardboard boxes and plastic objects all may contain minute patterns, scratches and imperfections.

Your eyes may perceive a surface to be perfectly smooth; however, magnified images reveal something entirely different.

Use 100X magnification for larger textures, then increase magnification when you encounter an interesting spot worth closer investigation.

An affordable phone microscope can transform classroom materials into topics you can revisit outside the lab.

Depending upon your field of research, samples may include plant material, fibers, crystals or other dry specimens.

Instead of reading about structures in textbooks, why not observe and photograph them directly using your phone?

Before beginning, it's essential that you pose a question:

Beginning low, locate the area to examine, and increase magnification for finer details.

This simple approach to research can turn casual exploration into an in-depth science project.