Hello and welcome.
Today we're going to take a quick look at the new microscope feature of the SPARK Science
Learning System and SPARKvue software.
This is available in version 1.3, which is on our website for download for free.
So, let's take look at what it looks like to capture an image.
I have the software up on my screen here.
I've connected my SPARK Science Learning System to my computer, and a Ken-A-Vision microscope
to the computer, as well.
The Ken-A-Vision microscope appears as a USB video device, and the temperature sensor shows
up just like a measurement normally does.
So, I'm going to go ahead and select my USB microscope image.
And I'm going to use the Show path to get me right to a full screen capture mode. So,
if I touch the capture button in the middle there, you'll see that I get an image directly
from my microscope.
So, now I'm monitoring -- I'm just seeing what's going on in the image. And when I'm
ready to capture, I go ahead and bring up my tools.
And now I can see I'm in monitoring mode there -- I've got that hot button. And when I'm
ready, I use the Check button and capture an image.
So, I'm going to capture a couple more, just so we have a couple to work with.
And then I'm going to, for this moment, put away my tools.
So now I have a image collected, and I can go back to my original image by touching the
legend and going back to Image 1.
And in Image 1 I'm going to do some annotations.
So I want to first use the drawing tool to identify the specimen that I will be looking at.
And we'll use the one here towards the middle of the screen.
And now that I have that specimen, I'm going to go ahead and annotate. So I will add an annotation.
And we'll call our specimen "Edgar". OK.
And now I can move this around and I can use the arrow that is associated with it to identify
that this is, in fact, Edgar, our specimen. And this is on a slide that we have here on
the microscope.
So, now that I have that identified, I'm going to go to my other image, my second image.
And you'll see that these annotations stay with the first image.
And now I'm going to actually measure. So, I'm going to use the Measurement tool.
And I'm going to touch two points on the screen. It's going to create a measurement between
those two points.
And then, if I wasn't quite where I wanted to be, I can use the handles at either end
to move those measurements around and place them exactly where I want them on the image.
So, if I want the furthest points away here.
So, I get a measurement of approximately 174 pixels, because that's the image space that
we're working with.
So now I'm going to want to give that a more real world measurement. So to do that I'm
going to measure an object of known length. So if I had an object of known length within
the image, I would go ahead and use that.
I happen to know that, for this particular setup, on this 10x setting for 100 power,
that 500 pixels is approximately equal to one millimeter.
So what I'm going to do is grab the Measurement tool again. And I'm going to create a measurement
that is approximately -- or as close as I can get to -- 500 pixels long. And we'll call
that the object of known length.
And then, once I have that in place, I'm going to bring up the Measurement tool again.
I'm going to use the Properties button this time. And I'm going to identify this object as the
object whose properties I'm going to adjust.
So, it thinks it's 500 pixels. And I want to tell it that, no, it is in fact one millimeter.
OK. And then, I want to change its units from pixels to millimeters.
So it is ready to go.
And if I wanted to change the number of digits that are shown, I can do that as well. But
I'll stick with two. So, I say OK.
Now you can see, not only does that object in this image inherit the length of one millimeter,
but any other object identified in that image inherits that calibration.
So now I know that Edgar, in this case, is about 0.35 millimeters long. So, this is a
great way of using the tool in class to actually measure things.
So, now we have a measurement. We've seen how to do annotations. You can also use this
in conjunction with data collection.
So to do that, I'm going to create a new page. Just so we can see the two things side by
side, I'm going to -- just like I would a normal measurement -- select an image, and
I'm going to add it to my page.
And then I'm going to select a measurement, in this case temperature, and I will look
at that in a Digits display. And I'll put that on my page.
Once I like my page, I say OK, and now I have that page that has both the measurement and
the image capture at the same time.
You'll notice that also brings forward the most recent image that I was working with here.
So this is Image 1.
So now I have the ability to begin collecting data, and this is independent of image capture.
So I'm going to be looking at temperature.
My environmental temperature is 25 and I might want to annotate the image to indicate that
I've got an image that was collected at 25 degrees.
So I'm going to bring up those tools. I'm going to monitor to get a new image. And when
I capture that, you'll see that, in fact, it's going to add that to the stack of images.
So from this image space, I can go back and look through all three of the images that
I've captured so far.
But, for this case, I'm just going to be looking at Image 3, and I'm going to be adding that
annotation that says it is 24.8 degrees.
And it's going to add that into the image.
So once I have all this collected and captured, I can capture Journal pages just like I normally would.
And you'll see that that will both include the image, any annotations on the image, and
the data that has been collected in those spaces.
You'll also see that the data is still being collected. I'm going to go ahead and turn that off.
And now what I want to do is export that information. So I can export that Journal page just the
way I would normally do, up in my Sharing button here.
I have the Journal, but I have a new option, and that's Image.
So if I just want the raw image that I've collected, I just want to see those images
in a different context, I can export just the images. And I touch on that, and I have
that opportunity to bring that out.
So I can export images, I can export those Journal pages, and I can export the lab if
I wanted to. All to be turned in, collected, or whatever.
So that is how you can use this device in a classroom context.
We hope you enjoy using it with your students, and don't forget to practice safe science.
Thank you.