Ottawa-based Lumenera Corporation has donated 48 research-grade microscope cameras to local high schools, the company announced on Tuesday.
The maker of high-performance and custom digital cameras said it hopes the donation will help cultivate an interest in science among high school students.
“We are proud to support our local community by putting a Lumenera microscopy camera in science classrooms throughout the city of Ottawa,” Lumenera president Huw Leahy said in a release. “By giving the students access to research-grade equipment that they would encounter in post-secondary institutions and research labs, we hope to foster a passion for science and inspire them at an early age to consider a career in the field.”
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The donation – made to the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, Ottawa Catholic School Board and the French Public School Board of Eastern Ontario – provides one of the company’s cameras to every high school in Ottawa.
The company also organized training sessions for teachers to teach them how to use the new equipment.
Lumenera says the cameras will allow students and teachers to “study specimens at the same time on a monitor or projector, rather than taking turns looking down the eyepiece of a microscope.” They will also allow students to “capture images of their scientific experiments and investigations utilizing a high-end imaging solution that is found in post-secondary institutions and professional research laboratories worldwide.”
“All of our students participate in hands-on scientific inquiry with microscopes, and these new digital cameras will greatly extend their learning,” Christine Adam-Carr, the co-ordinator of the Student Success Department at the Ottawa Catholic School Board, said in a release. “While students often capture microscope images using cellphones, this camera provides far better resolution, along with access to software to further adjust and save the images captured.”
Lumenera employs 62 people and sells its cameras worldwide, counting Fortune 100 companies among its customers. Since 2012, it’s expanded its presence in Europe and China. Locally, its cameras are used by researchers at the University of Ottawa.