We wanted to share an OpenFlexure experience that we have just started at the Faculty of Education, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
We are a team of science teacher educators and graduates working with pre-service Natural Sciences and Biology teachers. As part of a five-session STEM workshop, our students are building their own OFM and will then use them as scientific tools in a small investigation.
Last week was our microscope-building session. Working in groups, the students assembled the different components, explored how the microscope works, and successfully built their first OFM. For most of them, this was their first experience building a scientific instrument themselves.
But building the microscopes is only the beginning. In the next sessions, the students will calibrate and explore their microscopes and then use them to observe samples and gather evidence for an investigation based on an environmental problem contextualised.
What particularly interests us about OpenFlexure is the opportunity for future science teachers to experience a scientific instrument in a different way. Rather than simply being given a microscope to use, they take part in building it, learn how it works, explore what kinds of evidence it can provide, and then make decisions about how to use it in an investigation. Later in the workshop, we will also invite them to think about the possibilities and limitations of open-source scientific instruments for science education.
We first learnt about OpenFlexure through @FernanFederici, which sparked the idea of exploring how we could incorporate it into initial teacher training. Later, @Paola_Larrauri provided us with hands-on training in building and using the microscopes. This training allowed us to learn how to build and use the microscopes and subsequently prepare the activity for the students.
We are currently only halfway through the experience, so there is still a lot to come. We hope to return to this thread and share some of the images the students obtain with their microscopes, how they use them to gather and analyse evidence in their investigations, and what we learn from the experience.
We would also love to hear from anyone who has used OpenFlexure in science education or teacher education. It would be great to learn about other experiences and ideas!
Acknowledgements
This experience is part of the project “Developing STEM competencies in pre-service teacher education through the construction and use of open-source scientific instruments”, funded by FONDEPEM 2026, Faculty of Education, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
