Our world is an incredible place. From the absolutely huge to the infinitesimally tiny there is so much to fascinate and inspire us all. The only problem is that usually we’re too busy to stop and look properly – so we miss most of it. Up Close and Personal is all about changing that!
- What is Up Close and Personal?
Up Close and Personal is a very personal project to Paul, one half of our My Science Club founders. Here, he explains why…
“I have had a fascination with microscopy ever since my primary school teacher set one up in our classroom and it’s never gone away. Looking at things under a microscope opens up whole new worlds to explore and just about anything looks amazing under a microscope.”
Paul continues “coupling my love of microscopy and photography Up Close and Personal became my 2020 lockdown project. I would post microscopic images on Twitter for people to guess what they were. To my amazement 1000s of people joined in the guessing fun and nearly 200 images were shared over several months.”
He concludes “the Twitter fun came to a natural end and so I created an, ever growing, archive of all my microscopy images for anyone to access and use for free.”
2. How can you use Up Close and Personal?
The library of Up Close and Personal images, which now numbers over 400 labelled images, can be accessed by anyone, for any purpose completely free. The images are used, mostly, by educators in a wide variety of ways to engage and inspire children such as:
- Lesson starters to prompt discussion
- A part of quizzes
- As part of science topics to add detail to a concept
- A teaser for a new topic
- Printed and displayed around school to promote discussion and debate
3. How can I create my own Up Close and Personal images?
One of the best things about Up Close and Personal is that anyone can get involved. Taking your own photos is easy and doesn’t require any expensive equipment at all. Paul uses a cheap USB digital microscope (around £20 online) that is incredibly easy to operate and produces excellent results.
In addition some of his images are taken using a small macro lens that clips onto his smart phone (again less than £25 online) – this produces spectacular images.
So for very little outlay you can soon be exploring the world of the tiny all around you and get your children involved too by creating your very own Up Close and Personal library.
4. Getting involved in Up Close and Personal
Once you start taking your own Up Close and Personal images share them on Twitter using #upcloseandpersonal and our hash tag #MSC. You will also find them woven in to several of our packs. One of the best is the quiz in our Upper Primary Biology pack Micro World. We’d love to hear how you get on!
5. Where can I find Up Close and Personal?
After a couple of years of nomadic lifestyle Up Close and Personal finally has a permanent home on the brand new My Science Club website as one part of an exciting suite of free resources for educators. The Up Close and Personal image library will continue to be FREE to ALL educators and will continue to grow with new images constantly being added.
Want to be in on the secret? Then sign up now for priority invitations to our educator welcome events in September and discount codes for early bird members
Bryony and Paul
Founders and creators of My Science Club Ltd