Science educators in K-12 schools are often confronted with skepticism when the budgetary needs for equipment and materials come up for discussion. They are expected to make science “interesting”, “exciting”, “motivating”, and “up-to-date”, but without investing money in modern technology. It is important to not let this common fascination with novelty, excitement and parsimony, prevent us from realizing the full potential for videomicroscopy in classroom science teaching. In addition to their “gee, whizl” aspects, videomicroscopes offer a number of instructional advantages that make them worth the money, and I will present some ideas about how to use and configure a videomicroscope for classroom use.