Students at Bass Coast College’s San Remo campus have been working with research grade microscopes as part of this term’s STEM studies, thanks to the Gene Technology Access Centre (GTAC) which has partnered with Inspire STEM Education (ISE) to make the Scanning Electron Microscope available to schools.

A SEM is a type of microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons and provides extremely high resolution.

“The College has been fortunate to have been loaned a high-tech Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for students to use,” explained Campus Principal Emma Harris this week.

“This type of equipment is usually restricted to research laboratories due to the high cost of the machine.’

Scanning electron microscopy is used by scientists in a variety of fields to learn more about the composition and topography of man-made and naturally occurring materials.

For instance, scanning electron microscopy has allowed biologists to learn much more about microscopic organisms, like bacteria and viruses, than was previously thought possible.

“Students have experienced collecting and preparing specimens themselves,” Ms Harris said.

“Samples including insects, flowers, shells and hair have been popular choices.”

The students  load the samples into the SEM to zoom in on nature to investigate the structure and function of living organisms and use the power of microscopy to explore specialised functions that enable multicellular organisms to survive and reproduce.

Images of the specimens are captured and then printed.

The images will be used to create a gallery in the school of the micro and nano world.