What do atoms look like? | 16-18 years

A digital image created using a scanning tunnelling microscope, representing atomic level objects as raised areas and patterns on a surface

Source: © Getty Images

Introduce your students to the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) as a tool for investigating atoms in this lesson plan with activities for 16–18 year olds.

In this session, students explore how the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) can be used as a tool for investigating atoms. Students encounter an excerpt from Richard Feynman’s lecture ’There’s plenty of room at the bottom’, stimulating thinking about nanochemistry.

This activity fits within or towards the end of a series on atoms and atomic structure.

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