10 Feb Take the OLogy Challenge with American Museum of Natural History

Take the OLogy Challenge! Share your work with the American Museum of Natural History and it might get posted on the OLogy website for everyone to see.

CHALLENGE #14

Draw the Invisible
There’s more to a specimen than meets the eye! With our human eyes, many of us can clearly see a rock, a flower, or an animal. But what might these specimens look like using powerful imaging tools?

For example, take a look at these two images. On the left is what a bull shark looks like to the human eye. And on the right is what a tiny part of its skin looks like using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This imaging tool helps scientists zoom in super close and examine what might be “invisible” to the human eye.

The Challenge:
Follow the steps below to create side-by-side drawings of what a specimen looks like to the human eye and what it looks like using an imaging tool. You can download and use this PDF as a template, or you can create your own.

STEP 1: Pick your specimen of focus. Mineral, vegetable, or animal? You can pick a crystal, lava, a fossil, a maple leaf, pollen, an apple, a butterfly, a goldfish, a chameleon… So many possibilities!

STEP 2: Research more about this specimen.

What does it look like to the human eye?
What does it look like using an imaging tool? Find a picture of this specimen taken by a high-definition camera, a microscope, a computed tomography (CT) scanner, or a scanning electron microscope (SEM).
How does this tool help scientists study this specimen?

STEP 3: Create side-by-side drawings of this specimen.

On the left, draw what it looks like to the human eye.
On the right, draw what it looks like using an imaging tool.
Label your drawings with captions.

How to Submit:
Have your parent or guardian email a high-res image of your artwork to ology@amnh.org by Monday, March 1st.

If your parent or guardian is comfortable sharing this information, please include:

• a short caption for your artwork
• your first name and the first letter of your last name
• your age
• your state (or province) and country

More Info >>

Content & Image Source: AMNH