Welcome

(below text from kickstarter page, can we make a shorter version of this as a 3 sentence intro?)

From dust motes, bacteria, chlorophyll and amoebas, a strange and fantastic world surrounds us. Working with people around the world, Public Lab has developed an affordable way to peek into this hidden world. Using simple materials, we’ve developed a kit you can build yourself - the result of many teams’ work coming together! It takes only fifteen minutes to build, and plugs into a smartphone or laptop. It’s a simple but elegant design -- you focus it by tightening the bolts, and the basic version is made from a webcam with its lens flipped upside down.

(here I am trying to insert a welcoming moment) Public Lab is an open community of activists, tinkerers, organizers, makers, educators and scientists around the world, who have worked together to design this kit. We’ve worked with a growing coalition to take a Do-It-Yourself approach to environmental justice issues. (write a sentence here inviting people to join the conversation, follow a tag, sign up, something) Read more about the Community Microscope!

Assembling Your Community Microscope

1. Get a Community Microscope

You can find the materials needed to build a community microscope here, or purchase one from the Public Lab Store!

2. Assemble the Microscope Base:

(Make assembly video)

For step-by-step instructions on how to assemble your microscope, click here. (Link to new assembly note that needs to be updated with Make images)

3. Convert a Webcam to a Microscope

For step-by-step instructions on how to convert your webcam, click here.

Activities

There is so much that you can do with your microscope! Learn more about what the Public Lab Community is doing with their community microscopes below.

Using Your Microscope

Check out these activities to get started using your microscope.

Our community members have done even more cool stuff, which you can see here (links to tag page for activity:microscope, that page will need a new image, link back to some wiki?)

Lesson Plans

Public Lab tools, like the community microscope, can be used in educational settings. Educators at Public Lab have created these materials to get you started using the Community Microscope Kit. You can learn more about Public Lab's Education initiative here.

Workshops

Science is better together! Here are some examples of how the community microscope has been used in a workshop setting. Check these out and share your own!

Frequently Asked Questions

Check out these questions and answer's from our community to get you started! Want to see more questions from our community? See more questions about the Community Microscope here. (this links to all the questions tagged as community-microscope)

Media

(this is a really long list of photos on the current iteration of the page. Maybe we can write a quick sentence on why they'd want to share or something and then link them out to a "Community Microscope Media" or general "Media" wiki that has photos for people to use and share)

Looking for photos of the community microscope to share? Check out this Wiki for cool pix. (write a more engaging sentence and link to this wiki)