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CLEAPSS Microscope Maintenance (for Secondary Science Technicians)

  • 7 hours
  • 1 day

Please note this course is no longer running

If you are interested in booking this course, please contact CLEAPSS direclty.

Overview

This one-day course will help you gain the confidence needed to tackle simple microscope maintenance tasks. It will also enable you to identify faults in school microscopes so that standard repairs can be done.

It's designed for secondary-school technicians with little knowledge or experience of servicing school microscopes.

(Please note that certain jobs, e.g. repair of fine focus mechanism, will still require the services of professional microscope technicians.)

This course is run by the Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Services (CLEAPSS) at IOE, UCL's faculty of education and society.

Who this course is for

It's aimed at secondary science laboratory technicians teaching Key Stage 3 and 4 (KS3 and KS4).

Course content

Topics covered include:

  • Dismantling the microscope
  • Cleaning mechanical parts
  • Lubrication
  • Re-assembly and adjustment of mechanical parts
  • Cleaning the optical components

Teaching and structure

The course is delivered as a practical workshop.

Entry requirements

You'll need to be the science technician in your school. 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you'll have:

  • Gained confidence in tackling simple maintenance tasks related to microscopes
  • Learnt to identify faulty microscopes
  • Performed standard repairs to a microscope

Course team

Jane Major for CLEAPSS

Jane Major for CLEAPSS

Jane works as an adviser for CLEAPSS.

CLEAPSS provides advice and guidance on all aspects of practical work in science, technology and art. This guidance explores ideas for exciting and engaging practical activities that fire pupils' imaginations and then, unlike many alternative resources, goes on to show teachers and technicians, in detail, how to translate these ideas into safe and exciting classroom experiences.

CLEAPSS has in excess of 28,000 schools and colleges in membership, predominantly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where its advice is recognised by HSE, DFE and OFSTED as representing best practice in these areas and as such it is used by employers as the basis for them to discharge their responsibilities under the H&S at work act, 1999.

Course information last modified: 1 Dec 2023, 17:15