The Imagemaker

Not long ago, science teacher Jim Lehman found the solution to a high-tech problem in the plumbing section of his local hardware store in Richmond, Va. In Lehman's classes, students use computer software to manipulate, enhance, and analyze a wide range of images. The technique is called image processing, and it's pretty advanced science for teenagers. But rather than buy or cadge the required digital pictures, Lehman wanted his students to produce their own. He just needed to find some way to hold the lens of his digital camera snug against the eyepiece of a microscope.

"I tried to empty my mind of preconceptions," Lehman recalls. And that led him to the hardware store's plumbing aisle, where he found an adapter designed to connect plastic pipe with metal. One end of the adapter had a rubber sleeve that gripped the camera perfectly, and the other end fit nicely onto the microscope. It did the trick. Held steady in the adapter, the camera could be used to photograph minute crystals, bacteria, or planaria. It even worked with a telescope, allowing his students to record the sky's celestial wonders.

The find was particularly satisfying. The quality of the images from his $100 camera rivals the output of scientific cameras that cost thousands, Lehman says. Even more significant, his students' work took a quantum leap in sophistication: Instead of analyzing purchased digital images, they generated their own from projects and experiments,...