As part of the Hitachi High-Tech America Inspire STEM Education Outreach Programme in the UK, a successful STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education pilot has seen over 5000 students from 80 schools given the opportunity to use scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) for their own experiments. The collaborative project allowed students to design, propose, and execute experiments to give them hands-on experience with scientific research. Feedback from the project has been resoundingly positive, with many students gaining new skills and an interest in STEM, and it looks set to grow further to allow more students access to high-level scientific equipment.