Compact Microscope

Standard school microscopes are two hundred dollars and weigh five pounds, not efficient for carrying around. They are bulky, fragile, and inaccessible. The Compact Microscope is a SLA clear resin microscope about 13 by 5 cm and less than a 2.5 cm tall. My “pocket microscope” makes science more accessible everywhere and to everyone, instead of just people who can pay a couple hundred dollars. Teachers who have a 3D printer could print out multiple Compact Microscopes and utilize them in class. Being able to carry around a handheld and personal microscope would make learning much more fun, interesting, and interactive. Compact Microscopes can be taken on hikes to explore your surroundings in a deeper way. The Compact Microscope contains a 2 mm embedded resin ball that acts as a lens. It is small enough so that the light refracts around it to enlarge the image, but large enough to see through. The design would be printed on a SLA printer with clear and slightly flexible resin. The microscope contains holders for standard sized slides. The elevated tabs can be used to push the lens-platform in the x and y axis on tracks. To focus, the treaded tabs can be pushed inward or on the edges and outward to move the lens closer to or farther away from the slide in the z axis. To see clearer, the microscope can be held up to light. Making science fun and accessible is a big step in improving and designing the future. The Compact Microscope is a window to the natural microscopic world.