Collaborative Project: Expanding the Use of Remote Electron Microscopy in the Classroom to Transform Undergraduate Geoscience Education

这一合作项目正在研究分析仪器的远程操作，特别是佛罗里达国际大学(FIU)的扫描电子显微镜和电子探针分析仪，以促进本科生地球科学课程中以探究为基础的学习方法。远程仪器使用的有效性正在四个不同机构的不同课程级别和受众中进行评估：FIU、巴伦西亚社区学院、佛罗里达墨西哥湾沿岸大学和南佛罗里达大学。每所院校的教职员工都在调整工具的使用，以适应他们的课程和学生，并使用常见的方法来评估学习成果和学生态度的变化，沿着从新手到专家的轨迹。四个合作机构的仪器使用和学习评估正在得到国家一级的推广，以吸引更多的合作伙伴，使用动手研讨会和后续的个人培训和咨询，为致力于在自己的课程中试点使用的教师提供培训和咨询。该项目的智力优势在于其精心制定的计划，利用固定地点的高端分析仪器，在偏远机构的本科课程中实现真实的研究和探究。嵌入式教育研究解决了以下重要问题：a)在多大程度上以及何种类型的远程仪器辅助询问(S)能够实现有针对性的学生学习结果；b)随着机构类型、课程水平和学生受众的不同，决定有效性的因素是什么；以及c)广泛传播这种方法存在哪些挑战，以及如何克服这些挑战。该项目的更广泛影响包括：(A)产生见解和做法，促进在本科课程的多个层次远程使用研究级分析仪器，提供一个可在其他研究中心使用的模式，以使各种本科机构能够获得迄今无法获得的分析能力；(B)让各种学生(从专业班级的大四学生到入门课程的非专业一年级学生)和机构(从研究型大学到社区学院)参与真实的研究，这是留住STEM学科学生的一种高影响力的做法，以及c)合作机构及其他机构的教师的专业发展，以及从事学科教育研究的博士后学者和研究生。

This collaborative project is examining the remote operation of analytical instruments, specifically a scanning-electron microscope and electron microprobe analyzer housed at Florida International University (FIU), to facilitate inquiry-based approaches to learning in undergraduate geoscience courses. The effectiveness of remote instrument use is being assessed across different course levels and audiences at four diverse institutions: FIU, Valencia Community College, Florida Gulf Coast University, and the University of South Florida. Faculty at each institution are adapting instrument use to their courses and students, and using common methods to assess learning gains and changes in students' attitudes along a novice-to-expert trajectory. Instrument use and learning assessment at the four partnering institutions is being supplemented by national-level outreach to engage further partners, using hands-on workshops and follow-on individual training and consultation for faculty who commit to pilot use in their own courses.The intellectual merit of the project lies in its well-formulated plan to leverage fixed-location, high-end analytical instruments to enable authentic research and inquiry within the undergraduate curriculum at remote institutions. The embedded educational research addresses important questions of a) how much and what type(s) of remote instrument-aided inquiry enable targeted student-learning outcomes, b) what factors determine effectiveness as institution type, curricular level, and student audiences vary, and c) what challenges exist for widespread propagation of the approach and how might these be overcome. Broader impacts of the project include a) the production of insights and practices that promote remote use of research-grade analytical instrumentation at multiple levels of the undergraduate curriculum, providing a model that could be used at other research centers to enable heretofore inaccessible analytical capabilities at a wide range of undergraduate institutions, b) engagement of a diverse range of students (from seniors in majors' classes to first-year non-majors in introductory classes) and institutions (from research universities to community colleges) in authentic research, a high-impact practice for retaining students in STEM disciplines, and c) professional development for faculty at the partnering institutions and beyond, as well as for a postdoctoral scholar and graduate student engaged in discipline-based educational research.