Institute of Imagination Core activity
Core activity

Device magnifier

A little lens on a phone camera, and a leaf becomes a landscape.

Tool
Type
8
Phones
two out, the rest charging in twos
1h 30m
Battery
roughly, on each phone
Take one
Lenses
in a kit made up at the table
What it is

The activity

A small lens on a phone camera, held with Blu Tack. The phone becomes a magnifier.

The phones are ours, and the lens stays on. It is fitted once and left there all day.

Theme

Biomimicry. Looking closely is how a child finds a shape worth building. This ends at the pattern; the paper next door starts from it.

Explore

On the table

Plants, leaves, flowers, rocks and shells. Children look, they do not hunt.

Nature's Patterns and rubbings are there too: paper over a surface, crayon or pastel.

Paper cities

The other activity on this station. The shape a child finds here is what they build there.

How it runs

What can you see that you could not see before?

  • lines
  • hairs
  • holes
  • ridges
  • layers
  • repeats

Could you build that out of paper? Go next door and try.

Make

Steps

  1. Blu Tack around the camera lens, not over it. A small piece.
  2. Press the lens onto it, centred over the glass. It stays on.
  3. Look. Hold the thing still and move the phone to focus. About 2 cm between the lens and the object is roughly right.
  4. The phone comes back, is wiped, and goes on charge, lens still fitted.
Steps 1 and 2 are done when a phone is set up, and again if a lens comes off. Not between children.
Setup
Power. The phones charge at the table all day, in twos. This station needs a socket, possibly two.

Materials

Items

  • lenses
  • Blu Tack
  • phones
  • plastic bags
  • wipes
  • pastels or crayons

To look at

  • nature materials, collected by staff

Print

  • Nature's Patterns

Setup

Eight phones, two out at a time. The other six charge in twos. Each holds roughly an hour and a half, so a phone leaving the table is a phone going on charge.

The phones are Samsungs, and the camera opens without having to log in.

A lens fitted to each phone before the doors open. Nature materials out. Lenses and Blu Tack within the facilitator's reach, not loose across the table.

The take-home kit, laid out. A family makes one up themselves from Blu Tack, a plastic bag and a lens. The phone at home is their own.

Reset between children

The phone comes back to the facilitator and goes on charge with its lens still fitted, and the next pair comes out. It is wiped as it goes on charge, so every phone is wiped between the visitor who had it and the next one. Nature materials back where they can be picked up.

Safety
ChildrenLenses and Blu Tack. An iOi phone with a lens fitted.
AdultsNothing.
First aid

A lens is small enough to swallow. They stay with the facilitator, and one a child is keeping goes to the adult with them.

Phones are on charge at the table throughout, in twos, from a socket at the station.

No blade, no heat.

Notes