Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

This is the first paper Spark has written where he had to take notes on important facts and then write about a person.  I wasn't sure how this was going to go but he did a good job right out of the gate with almost no help from me except to point out a couple capitalization changes.  He took notes this week and last night spent a couple hours at the computer very seriously typing away.  The best part was I didn't even tell him to do it last night, he just got his notebook out and jumped right in (I thought I would have remind him over and over next week to work on it so I was thrilled when I saw him doing it on his own).  I think he has hidden abilities that he isn't letting on that he can do.  Time to raise the bar :)

ANTONI VAN LEEUWENHOEK - by Spark

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is important in history because he saw microscopic life using microscopes he made himself.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland on October 24 1632. His father made baskets. He had four sisters and his dad died wen he was five. His mom remarried in two years. At 16 he learned cloth making. He worked in his masters shop for six weeks and then became a master himself.

Leeuwenhoek married twice, his first wife died and so did his second. He had five kids and four died. His daughter Maria was the only one that lived, she never married and took care of him and their house in the years when he was doing all of his research.

In 1667, he went to London to learn about microscopes. He liked to look at mold, bees and lice. He also found small animals in water and he was the first one to see bacteria. He found bacteria in tooth plaque, he also discovered red blood cells. He inspected the lens on the end of the eye and he studied body parts like: bones, skin, eyes and hair. He found life begins with a sperm and an egg cell for all animals, it didn't just appear in rotting materials which is was people thought before.

He sent 26 microscopes to the Royal Society after his death. Before that he really didn't let people look at his microscopes and had only give a couple away prior to his death.