As part of the project, Dr Daryl Beggs and Dr Dimitra Fimi visited schools to share the exciting technological and literary elements of this project. Some of the activities they used are described below. Teachers, feel free to download any material you want to use in classes!
Find Alice through the looking glass!
You will need:
- Magnifying glasses
- Coloured pencils
Download all of Tenniel’s iconic illustrations for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and print/photocopy one sheet for every child. Ask pupils to use their magnifying glasses to circle Alice when she is tiny or gigantic with different colour pencils. Magnifying glasses make take a bit of getting used to if used for the first time in class.
Follow-up discussion questions:
- Where is Alice tiny, or gigantic? How do you know?
- Would you like to become tiny, or gigantic? Why?
- Do you like seeing through a magnifying glass? What details can you see that weren’t visible with a naked eye?
Amazing technology made simple
The tiny Alice book this project has created is not visible with the naked eye. However, the technology used can be explained in a highly visible way!
You will need:
- A piece of white card of A4 size
- A piece of coloured card larger than A4 (A3 would be ideal)
- Printer and scissors
- Flour and sieve
Download the stencil pattern from the link below, and print it on the white card. Cut out the letters that form the word “tiny” and then slot them back in, as if in a puzzle. Now place the coloured card on a flat surface. This represents the silicon tablet magnified. On top place the A4 page with the letters of the word tiny slotted in. Explain that the white card represents the resist. Remove the letters from the page, explaining that the electron beam machine does that job, by literally bombarding the resist with electrons. Now you should be able to see the letters in the colour of the card underneath. Now it’s time for the flower and sieve. Explain that the flower represents the pure gold dust we used. Sprinkle the flour all over the cut out letters, with the help of a sieve. The flower will go everywhere but that’s fine – that’s exactly what happens with the gold particles. Now it’s time for the delicate operation of removing the white card very carefully. That represents the process of removing the resist. Underneath, you will now see the word “tiny” formed with white letters (made out of flour) on the coloured card. That’s exactly how we end up with the pure gold letters on the silicon tablet!
Download: ‘tiny’ stencil
Make your own tiny book!
Since the entire project is about miniaturization, it’s a great idea to get children to work on their fine motor skills and create their own miniature book, in which they can then write a story with as tiny letters as they can manage!
The tutorial below shows you how to make an origami 8-page mini-book, using a piece of A4 paper. To make this mini book truly tiny (as in the size in the picture on the right), you can cut blank A4 papers in half, and then in half again, thus creating A6 sheets of paper. Then help pupils follow the instructions below on a mini scale!
Written instructions on this technique can also be found here.
Everyday things through the microscope!
Download the PowerPoint presentation below which guides you through a quiz, asking pupils to identify everyday things when put under the microscope!
Leave some time in-between the first 9 slides, asking pupils to guess, and perhaps write down their guesses. Then run through slides 11 – 26 to show them the answers to this quiz!