VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
Simple ‘plug and play’ setup One goal of the ZEISS Digital Classroom is to make teaching as frictionless as possible .The ZEISS Primostar 3 microscopes are designed to be robust and straightforward, and the accompanying Labscope software effortless. “The ease-of-use of the ZEISS software was absolutely vital,” says Karen. “After all, we’re biologists, not IT specialists!
And our students, they just download the app straight on to their iPads and they are up and running. They find it all very intuitive.” Each of the microscopes in the ZEISS Digital
Classroom are used in conjunction with several sets of dedicated iPads, says Karen, but each microscope also has a QR code that students can use to link the microscope to their personal devices if they prefer. So how is teaching with the new microscopes?
“The teachers really love them. They think that they’re really easy to use. And the optics are fantastic: especially at the highest magnification, we get really clear images. It is so much better than the microscopes we replaced.” They are also a lot easier to set up, Karen notes. Teachers and students at Sevenoaks no longer need to spend valuable learning time manually configuring the microscopes, because getting up and running with the Primostar 3 is as easy as plug and play. The ZEISS Labscope Teacher app also allows the teacher to specify the set-up required for the task at hand, and the microscopes simply configure themselves. That said, manual calibration is still possible within the software, if required.
Making microscopy more accessible “It’s funny,” says Karen. “One of the other teachers said to me, ‘Surely, the students should still be learning to calibrate the microscope manually?’ I said, ‘Why?’. It’s clear to me that making microscopy more accessible – and less fiddly and boring – boosts student engagement. The laboratory and scientific workplace of the future is digital, and we are teaching to this
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future.” And the future for Biology students at Sevenoaks is all about curiosity. “This new ability to see and capture such tiny differences has our students exploring questions about the living world that may not have been possible before these microscopes became available,” says Karen “It has opened new doors of curiosity and investigation for them.”
Adding a new dimension to teaching How does Karen sum up her experience of the ZEISS Digital Classroom? “I think it’s brilliant – and the students love it. It adds a new dimension to teaching microscopy, and it clearly demonstrates the importance that Sevenoaks School places on science.”
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