infocus #52 December 2018 Microscopy outreach in and around Malvern

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.165

Back in 2012 I started the first annual Malvern Festival of Innovation to celebrate technology and entrepreneurship in my home town, and this event has grown to include schools and family activities.

The Next Generation Innovators event attracts about 800 students and their teachers from school years 7, 8 and 9. This is the age that students start to make their GCSE choices and it is an excellent time to show them what an exciting career they could have pursuing science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics (STEM) subjects.

In 2017 the Quekett Microscopical Club demonstrated light microscopy techniques to the students [Figure 1]. The RMS has also exhibited at this event in the past, and each year we try to encourage university departments and commercial companies to participate.

To date we’ve had hands-on microscopical activities provided by the University of Worcester and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences. We would very much like a regular microscopy zone featuring tabletop instruments to showcase electron microscopy and scanning probe microscopy.