America is falling behind in science teaching. Young students' interest in science must be stimulated to maintain the intellectual vigor and economic competitiveness of the nation. Who has not been fascinated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) picture of a fly, or ant, or grain of pollen with every bristle in perfect focus? An appropriately simplified and low-cost SEM, which produces fascinating demonstrations, can engage student interest and introduce them to the discovery process and a wide range of scientific material in physics, optics, electronics, video, biology, materials science, and micro-electronics. Researchers are improving upon an existing prototype for such a SEM, and developing accompanying multimedia teaching materials, to be made available to high schools at an affordable price.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: The initial applications will be in high school science departments, but once available at low cost, the SEM will be bought by industry for dedicated (non-research) uses such as production line inspection.
