An Integrated and Networked Microscopy Center for Undergraduate Education

该项目集中在生物系的综合显微镜设施（IMF）的形成。货币基金组织支持各级课程（从大一到研究生）的实验室练习。这些练习是实验性质的，可以通过学生对数据的合作分析来培养分析思维能力。这些学生中的一些人将毕业成为教师。 西南德克萨斯州立大学每年培养2,000多名中小学教师，其中包括30 - 35名获得生物学教学认证的教师。 此外，正在建立一个与地区高中的外联方案。因此，项目计划强调在现有的透射电子显微镜和光学显微镜上增加激光扫描共聚焦显微镜（LSCM），以形成最先进的显微镜设施。 LSCM对这一计划至关重要，因为它可以提供图像的性质，也因为它的联网能力。图像由计算机控制和显示。图像的数字化允许每个学生从他们的标本中收集图像，然后使用远离IMF的计算机检索图像。由于LSCM包括一台可以完全联网的基于UNIX的计算机，因此拟议的IMF的广泛使用是可能的。与已经到位的硬件联网允许从整个校园和世界各地访问IMF的图像。因此，任何具有工作站（由任何现代PC或Mac组成）的教学实验室都可以访问IMF。可解释的图像包括来自IMF中所有显微镜的图像，因为LSCM计算机也可以用于从这些来源获取和存储图像。 国际货币基金组织允许学生在熟悉的计算机环境中接触高科技。LSCM提供的技术使学生远程访问图像文件成为可能。本计画目标的实施，可显著提升生物科学教育的水准，并提供其他大学学习的模式。

This project concentrates on the formation of an integrated microscopy facility (IMF) in the Biology Department. The IMF supports laboratory exercises at all levels in the curriculum (freshman to graduate). The exercises are experimental in nature and can foster analytical thinking skills through students' collaborative analysis of data. Some of these students will graduate to become teachers. Southwest Texas State University produces more than 2,000 elementary and secondary school teachers each year, including 30-35 certified to teach biology. In addition, an outreach program with area high schools is being established. Therefore, project plans have emphasized adding a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) to the existing transmission electron and light microscopes to form a state-of-the-art microscopy facility. An LSCM is essential to this plan because of the nature of the images that it can provide and because of its networking capability. Imaging is computer controlled and displayed. Digitization of images permits each student to collect images from their specimens and later retrieve the images using a computer at a site remote from the IMF. Widespread use of the proposed IMF is possible because the LSCM includes a UNIX-based computer that can be fully networked. Networking with hardware already in place permits images from the IMF to be accessed from all over campus and from all over the world. Thus any teaching lab with a workstation (consisting of any modern PC or Mac) can access the IMF. Accessible images include those from all the microscopes in the IMF, as the LSCM computer can also be used to acquire and store images from these sources. The IMF allows students access to high technology in a familiar, computer environment. The LSCM provides technology that makes remote access to image files by students possible. Implementation of the objectives of this project can markedly increase the level of science education in biology and provide a model program for other universities to emulate.