Scanning Electron Microscopy for Undergraduate Student Research and Instruction in Biology.

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This project provides a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to supplement the school's existing microscope facilities. The unique imaging capabilities of such an instrument provide information which cannot be supplied by either light microscopy or by a transmission election microscope. With this new instrument, the department can (1) modify the existing electron microscopy course to include all phases of specimen preparation and operation of the SEM so that students may use these techniques where appropriate in independent study and research, (2) help students become discriminating judges of the increasing amount of SEM evidence now presented in the literature of various disciplines, (3) utilize SEM in such courses as Principles of Biology, Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Systematics, in which scanning images serve as particularly useful instructional devices, and (4) make available and encourage the use of the instrument by students in other departments who require the kind of information that it can provide. In the curriculum, this new machine is being used to demonstrate relationships between structure and function at a number of biological levels. Basic biological concepts (not just techniques) are being taught. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.