Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In a first step of a larger project to develop software to teach materials characterization techniques, we have developed a module on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to be used mainly in a Department of Mechanical Engineering. The goal is to use the unique capabilities of the computer to develop a platform-independent interactive web-based software package which can be used as a stand-alone application or as support in existing “traditional” classes and improve the quality of teaching. Commercial development tools like Macromedia Dreamweaver for HTML pages, Macromedia Flash and JBuilder to create animations and visualizations of basic concepts and simulations of microscope operations are used for improved teaching quality.