Bugscope is an easily accessible educational outreach program that has remotely connected thousands of students with microscopists at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology for more than 25 years.

Encouraging K-12 students to collect and send insect samples to the Beckman Microscopy Suite, Bugscope leaders prepare the samples, help create lesson plans and guide students in remote video sessions to explore and investigate their insects under a high-powered scanning electron microscope.

Bugscope has now been transformed into a summer camp program, and 2026 will be the second year it’s offered on Air Force bases around the country. Last summer, Lexie Kesler, Beckman’s outreach and communications manager, and Tai Josek, microscopist and outreach specialist, worked together with Tom Monahan, the founder of a mobile specialty summer camp program called We Are Camps. That company runs camps on bases around the country.

Microscopist Tai Josek (left) and Outreach Manager Lexie Kesler at the Beckman Institute. Credit: Elizabeth Bello, Beckman Institute Communications Office.

Monahan reached out to Kesler inquiring about remote, interactive STEM-focused programs and Kesler immediately thought of Bugscope, the web-based outreach tool that could easily be modified.

As the outreach manager, Kesler had previously designed interactive STEM activities at the Beckman Institute. For example, working with the Autonomous Materials Systems group, Kesler created a learning activity where students were tasked with helping astronauts make repairs on space stations by testing different combinations and ratios of cured resins.

 Although it was an imagined scenario, the hands-on activity allowed students to learn about different materials, how they’re designed and the research that Beckman scientists are working on.

Together, Kesler and Josek transformed a typical Bugscope session into an interactive summer camp session focused on bioinspiration, the process of understanding nature to create new tools and technology.

Campers worked in small groups to complete an assigned mission with the goal of using provided insect resources, both physical and virtual, to design a bioinspired robot.

In one mission, an earthquake strikes a fictional town, and campers designed robots inspired by insects to search the town and assess the damage. The rescue robot needed to be able grab and carry valuable items, move loose rocks and detect high heat areas. By learning about insects and working with microscopists through Bugscope, campers designed robots that could perform all the tasks required to complete the mission.

The cerci, or tweezer-like pincer structures, seen in this scanning electron microscopy image of an earwig is one example of an insect appendage that might inspire campers to design robotic parts that can grab and carry valuable items or move loose rocks. Credit: Tai Josek, Beckman Institute Microscopist.

“It’s cool to see Bugscope applied in a different way,” Josek said. “It’s not just one program, it’s adaptable.”

Kesler and Josek created supplemental materials including a session outline for instructors or camp leaders, informational bug cards with resin embedded bugs (that can be mailed to campers), mission information cards, Bugscope skill worksheets and even recorded a mission briefing video including an interview with an engineer.

The interview was conducted with Ophelia Bolmin, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumnus who is now a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

“I lead a group that looks at insects to design robots. Specifically, we look at very fast movements and how the insect body can sustain acceleration speeds that are as fast as rockets for example,” Bolmin said.

Bolmin became familiar with bioinspiration and studied the click beetle jumping mechanism during her doctoral degree at Illinois. She currently leads the Mechanisms Inspired by Nature for Dynamics Laboratory, the MIND Lab, at Carnegie Mellon.

“With outreach, I like to incorporate the ‘Why?’ Creating missions based on interactive Bugscope observations was a neat way to accomplish that. It helped campers understand how and why the equipment was being used and why we have these studies. By providing real-life examples, connecting campers with scientists, and encouraging camper-led sessions, it adds additional layers to expand campers’ science literacy,” Kesler said.

Editor's Note:

For more information about Bugscope, please visit bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu or contact Tai Josek (josek1@illinois.edu) or Cate Wallace (ctopha2@illinois.edu).