Edtech involves using technology for education. A lot of businesses are focusing on VR and other software products, but there is something to be said for real hands on learning!
The other day I popped one of these lenses off of an old CD player and held it up to my phone to show some kids at a party how cool the table cloth fibers look up close. Everyone thought it was really cool (including the adults!)
There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to do this, here is a link for your convenience:
https://www.pcnexus.net/2015/07/how-to-convert-any-smartphone-camera-into-microscope.html
Everyone is fascinated by the amazing microscopic world right in front of them that they can’t see. Even if you don’t build a microscope, at least buy something like one of these:
Students love to see the unseen, and these make for great ways to get them excited about steam projects.
The project that I am documenting here is a low cost scanning tunneling microscope, and with the right setup it will detect atoms and molecules that students usually don’t get to see until college.
Imagine having a student put a penny under a microscope and getting images like this:
Then zooming in on center of the letter “R” and seeing an image like this:
Then using the same machine to engrave their name in the copper only a few hundred atoms acros like IBM did:
This is what I am attempting to build. I’m hoping to inspire future scientists to explore the world around them, no matter how big or small it may be!
For progress documentation click here:
If you are passionate about the microscopic and nanoscopic world and would like to help make this an open source project, then comment below or reach out through the contact us form:
If you are excited about Edtech and think a microscope kit should be available for purchase comment below as well