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Microscopy Education


The Private Eye – (5×) Looking/Thinking by Analogy ®


Magnifying Minds Using a Jeweler’s Loupe, Everyday Objects, and a Few Simple Questions


Kerry Ruef P.O. Box 646 , Lyle , WA 98635


ruef@the-private-eye.com


Editor’s Note: Kerry Ruef is the Founder and Director of T e Private Eye Project. T ere will be a workshop concerning T e Private Eye at the M&M 2015 meeting in Portland, OR.


Enchanting Worlds


Near some moss-covered rocks just outside the elementary school in Cascade Locks, Oregon, two fi ſt h-grade girls hover over a tall fern. One studies a frond with a 5× loupe while the other acts as secretary and writes what her partner says, “Ooh, little swords. T e edges are like saw blades.” T e speaker straightens to look at the fern without her loupe and says, “T e whole thing looks like a fountain.” She bends back down and turns the frond over, returning to her loupe-view: “I see brown hairs. And rows of tiny buttons. Like armies. Or are those bugs?” Her partner stops writing to take a closer look for herself ( Figure 1 ). Meanwhile, in a classroom at Washington Middle School in Seattle, students are lost in a maze of ridges and valleys—on their own fi ngerprints. T ey loupe-draw them carefully, like little topo-maps, inside six-inch squares, but in a week, each


drawing will bloom into large works of art that ultimately hang in the cafeteria ( Figure 2 ). T e art teacher and science teacher make a team.


In Dr. Hassoun’s anatomy class at Lansing Community College in Michigan, students loupe-peer into the puff ed and quilted skin on the back of their hands and use their observa- tions and associations to write poems (Yes! In a science class!) as part of an exploration into the structure and function of the characteristics of skin. One student writes, “T e back of my hand... a desert/where the water table is low/but tiny hairs of cactus still grow.”


A world away, a class of students in Haiti crams together on narrow benches. With eye-loupes in hand, they study their fi ngerprints up close. T en they draw them on tiny pieces of paper—the fi rst steps on a journey that melds the personal and the scientifi c ( Figure 3 ). T ese scenes repeat themselves. Under fl uorescent lights at desks or outdoors at the beach, the garden, the desert, the pond, students fi nd enchanting worlds natural and manmade: twigs, shells, coins, strawberries, pond critters, fabric. T ese students share something in common: they are exploring the world with T e Private Eye.


What is The Private Eye? How Does it Magnify Minds?


Thinking by analogy . The Private Eye is a hands-on, interdisciplinary inquiry method that develops critical thinking skills, creativity, and scientific literacy across subjects, K–16, through life. Student-centered, literacy- rich, and art-rich, it begins with everyday objects, four simple but powerful questions, and a 5× jeweler’s loupe—an unexpectedly humble magnification tool that fosters wonder and concentration and starts a surprising journey. The process and lessons are detailed in a book: The Private Eye — (5 × ) Looking/Thinking by Analogy – A Guide to Developing the Interdisciplinary Mind [ 1 ].


Figure 1 : Two fi fth-graders fi nd a fern forest surprise, through a loupe. 52


The goal of using The Private Eye systematically across the curriculum is to accelerate learning for all students. The method enables students to develop the habits of mind


doi: 10.1017/S1551929515000413 www.microscopy-today.com • 2015 May


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