In WA the iconic Busselton Jetty has developed a marine education program for local schools. Designed for students in Year 4 to 6 and Year 7 to 10 the program focuses on biodiversity and conservation.

Topics include history and preservation, marine life, biodiversity and plastic pollution and conservation.

 

The school incursions include an interactive presentation and hands-on workshop with different activity stations using digital technology from The Logical Interface, samples, specimens, information sheets and posters with worksheets to complete.

The first school to take advantage of the program is the Georgiana Molloy Anglican School (GMAS). Students from the school are shown in these images using wireless digital microscopes to examine marine specimens in more detail.

This program is free to schools and is made possible thanks to the support of Rio Tinto and the Busselton Jetty Environment Fund.

WiFi Digital Microscopes are Ideal for Field Work

Environmental Education Centres in NSW and Queensland have discovered WiFi digital microscopes for use in the field. 

Tablet computers are ideal for collecting data using wireless data loggers such as the Pasco Airlink and Pasco’s range of wireless sensors Visit The Logical Interface. Combined with a WiFi digital microscope they are also perfect for viewing and capturing images of flora and fauna in the field.

In Sydney the Georges River EEC has integrated the TLI iMicro digital microscope from The Logical Interface into their courses. 

Garth Jones of the GREEC has forwarded images of his students with the description -

“Recently students used this microscope in the field. Dr David Reid helped students identify macro invertebrates using iPads. The students were more engaged in the process. GRCCC and GREEC run a River Health Monitoring program with several high schools along the Georges River.”

Viewing Microscope Slides with a Hand Held Digital Microscope

I am often asked whether hand held digital microscopes can be used to view microscope slides. The answer is yes. However they are not as good as a traditional microscope as they do not use transmitted light, or have a condenser, or the same quality objective and eyepieces that a good quality compound biological microscope has. Given these limitations they can still give quite good images.

The image below is from a slide of a mouse tail cross section captured at 200X with our TLI iMicro Pro digital microscope. As you can see there is a lot of detail visible in this slide. For schools and organisations that do not have traditional microscopes these hand held microscopes with stands can provide a good alternative.

 

 

 

 

Flir Thermal Imaging for Education

Flir, famous for their thermal imaging cameras, has introduced a new camera designed specifically for education. The FLIR C2 is a full-featured, pocket-sized thermal camera. Affordable, lightweight and small it is the perfect tool for classroom use. FLIR C2 produces thermal images of 80 x 60 pixels. Temperatures can be read from each of the 4,800 pixels. Images can be stored inside the camera and
recalled for camera analysis.  Additionally, the C2 Education Kit includes software for real-time streaming and recording of thermal movies.  Thermal images and movies can be replayed in the software for further analysis.