Scanning Electron Microscopy in the Undergraduate Laboratory

通过该项目，资助购买具有能量色散X射线光谱分析能力并具有可选的低真空(环境)操作模式的扫描电子显微镜。该仪器构成了一个多部门显微镜设施的中心，为所有自然科学领域的学生提供服务。本科生通过具体的实验向学生介绍扫描电子显微镜-能谱仪技术，这些实验被嵌入到各种修订的和新的课程提供的课程中。对于一些人来说，以应用仪器和辅导指导为特色的特定课程可以导致为期一年的独立研究项目，并在教师导师和项目主任的监督下担任实验室教学助理。对仪器使用的仔细安排和监督使任何自然科学专业的学生都能与来自不同学科的其他学生互动，并增加大学试图培养的社区意识。新的、有计划的、目前无法预见的大学师生研究途径可以从在不同真空模式下运行所允许的显著的实验灵活性发展起来，从而使实时观察化学反应、比较固定和非固定的生物标本以及对活组织的扫描电子显微镜观察成为可能。

Through this project, assistance in the purchase of a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy capability and featuring optional low vacuum (environmental) operation mode is funded. This instrument forms the centerpiece in a multidepartmental Microscopy Facility servicing students in all the natural sciences. Undergraduates are introduced to SEM-EDS technology through specific experiments that are embedded into the curriculum in a variety of revised and new course offerings. For some, specific courses featuring applied instrumentation and tutorial instruction can lead to year-long independent studies projects and roles as laboratory teaching assistants, under the supervision of both faculty mentors and the project director. Careful scheduling and supervision of instrument use enable students majoring in any of the natural sciences to interact with others from different disciplines and increase the sense of community that the university seeks to foster. New, planned, and currently unforeseeable avenues of collegial student-faculty research can develop from the remarkable experimental flexibility permitted by operating in variable vacuum modes, thus making possible both real-time observation of chemical reactions and comparison of fixed and unfixed biological specimens and SEM observation of living tissues.