Microworlds
Session 4 - Small and mysterious
We are learning to:
explore the natural world
build our understanding of the small and microscopic organisms that live around us
I will know I'm successful if:
I can observe and appreciate the living world
I can explain that tiny organisms live in our soil
I can notice that there are complex relationships between living things
Share your art and photos
We'd love you to share your photos, journaling, art and writing about the miniature world! Be inspired by insects, arthropods, lichens, mosses and other organisms that live in your garden or near your home. Take a photo of your art and upload using the 'Share my art and photos' button. Please note that you must be a NSW Department of Education student to use the form to share your pictures. All pictures will be linked to your Student Portal. Photos will be shared in our gallery.
What you need
patience and observation skills
a mirror for looking under leaves
a camera to take a photograph of a miniature world or your tiny subject (you can set your camera to macro and zoom up close, or download a free microscope app)
if you are taking a close up photograph you will need to hold your camera steady as it can easily blur if you move or your subject runs away!
If you can't get outside you may:
find tiny spiders on your balcony or by the window
find a slug or snail in your vegetables
notice a miniature world around a pot plant
draw one of the microscopic or close up images
create art (a story, poem, song, painting) based on microworlds
Please take care and gently observe any tiny creatures you find.
They are amazing and important.
They are an intricate part of the web of life.
To explore your garden
You can use a handheld mirror to look under leaves.
You can also use a phone camera in selfie mode.
Healthy soil is a living meta organism. It is brimming with many lifeforms in every handful.
The closer we look the more we can discover!
Here is a short film about a three toed skink in a Sydney garden and some of the animals that live in the leaf litter and mulch.
We can all make habitat for wildlife. Leaf litter, mulch, rocks, dead branches, and living vegetation protects tiny animals and is their home.
Once you start to look you may see miniature worlds on the surface of a tree trunk or the mosses and lichens on a rock.
Textured, shaggy, and peeling bark provides homes and habitat for many animals.
Remember to be gentle and leave the bark on trees. Also leave logs and bush rock on the ground as they are homes for many animals.
In this session we used a small digital microscope to view tiny organisms in soil, leaves, feathers, moss and bone. They were magnified between 20 and 50 times. Some of these creatures were invisible to us until we looked at the soil with a microscope. It was surprising to see so much activity in a handful of healthy soil.
We also found and magnified tiny spider that looked like a fleck of sand in a tiny web.
These animals were not visible or barely visible to the naked eye, and the microscope revealed another world full of activity.
Electron microscope images
Electron microscope images can be magnified by thousands to millions of times.
Many of these electron microscope images are zoomed up by around 10,000 times.
Step into a world that is completely invisible to our eyes.
Be inspired to discover more about the living world.
You can create art based on the miniature and the microscopic.
Discover more about microworlds
Microsculpture: insect portraits by Levon Biss, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
How to identify a spider from its web: Australian Museum
Micromonsters: David Attenborough BBC on ABCiview
Species Identification: Australian Museum