EAGER: US Ignite: Digital Tele-Microscopy in Support of Teaching Biology

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This project explores how to enrich high-school biology education by bringing university microbiologists and research-grade microscopy into the classroom via real-time, high-grade video. Research-grade microscopes have a variety of technologies not normally available in high-school classroom instruments. Techniques such as phase contrast, differential interference contrast, and others make it possible to see details in living organisms that students would not otherwise be able to see. Professional microbiologists are able to provide expert commentary about specimens and answer questions in dialogues that can enrich student's experience and excite their sense of discovery. This project is using gigabit networks and ultra-high-quality video to bring research instruments and researchers into the classroom.The project links research facilities at the University of Southern California with the STEM School Chattanooga, a public high school. The project's technology will allow researchers at USC to place live biological specimens under a USC-developed microscope and capture ultra-high resolution (4k) movies of the microorganisms while simultaneously transmitting live, high definition images from the microscope system to the students. It takes advantage of Chattanooga's deployment of a city-wide gigabit network. The project provides students there the unique opportunity to collaborate with scientists a continent away.