The 7th grade kick started their year in science learning about the microscopic realm! We are all used to the macroscopic world (the big things in our world we see everyday, like our friends, family, pets and plants) but have you ever thought of what those larger objects are actually made of? In 7th grade we started our microscopic journey learning all about the building blocks of life, also referred to as “cells”. Cells are the smallest unit of a living organism and they are what comprise ALL living things; in fact the average human has around fifty trillion cells in their body! Some organisms are multicellular (more than one cell) while others might be unicellular (made of just one cell). In this lab, students looked at various samples underneath different magnification intensities to see whether or not the object contained cells. If the sample does have cells present, we know that sample came from a (once) living organism. Samples that we investigated included the following: an onion, lettuce, celery, bread, salt, sand, hair, skin and paper. Students were absolutely baffled by the presence of cells and it really helped them start to look at the world from an entirely new perspective. By the end of this lab, students opened their minds up and have started to think about surface level information at a greater depth. This is just the start of understanding the interconnectedness between everything.