Preparing Undergraduates for Research: Examining the use of Remote Instrumentation in Earth and Planetary Science Classrooms

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Geology (42)This project is implementing and testing methods to bring research microbeam analytical instrumentation - an electron probe microanalyzer, and a scanning electron microscope, accessible via remote instrument operation technologies - into introductory and upper-level geoscience and natural science courses. This work is building on effective instructional approaches from Beane (2004) and other recent projects by developing and testing both classroom-oriented and research-based activities that make educational use of microbeam instruments in a remote operation environment. Project assessment is focusing on logistical aspects of using these tools in classroom settings, and on their educational benefits - their direct effects on learning in these courses, and the secondary impacts of attracting and retaining students in geoscience fields, and leading students into research-oriented directions later in their academic careers. The educational materials being developed are being submitted to appropriate Science Education Resource Center (SERC) sites for undergraduate geoscience education, and disseminated through workshops for faculty run at the Council on Undergraduate Research Biannual Conference, and at American Geophysical Union and Geological Society of America national meetings. The intellectual merit of this project lies in the progress it is making toward understanding the educational and professional development value of using research instruments in undergraduate STEM courses. The broader impacts of the project lie in the insights it is providing regarding successful ways to integrate virtual instrument use into science classrooms, which has the potential to expose students across a wide range of institutional settings to some of what research scientists actually do. As well, the outreach activities are not only creating connections between the PI and faculty at many institutions, but are connecting faculty participants to a cutting-edge (and Internet2 accessible) NSF-funded materials microanalysis facility. An additional educational impact of the project involves the participation of an incoming Ph.D. student in geoscience education, who is also teaching faculty at a local community college.