Bugscope: A Practical Approach to Providing Remote Microscopy for Science Education Outreach

Abstract

The Bugscope project is an educational outreach program for kindergarten to grade 12 (K–12) classrooms. The project provides a resource to classrooms so that they may remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image insects at high magnification. The microscope is remotely controlled in real time from a classroom computer over the Internet using a Web browser. Bugscope provides a state-of-the-art microscope resource for teachers that can be readily integrated into classroom activities. The Bugscope project provides a low-cost, sustainable model for research groups to support K–12 education outreach projects.

Bugscope: Online K–12 Microscopy Outreach

“…One of several projects that took advantage of this opportunity to use the Internet to bring the laboratory into the classroom, Bugscope began as an NSF grant to purchase a field-emission scanning electron microscope and develop sophisticated client and server software to control it via a standard web browser. Inspired by the success of and lessons learned from the Chickscope remote magnetic resonance imaging project [1] and from having successfully established remote web-based control of a transmission electron microscope, Clint Potter and Bridget Carragher created the Bugscope project [2] with the goal of developing a remote microscopy educational outreach project that would be sustainable over the long term. This goal led to two significant design decisions.…”

Shake, Rattle, and Roles: Lessons from Experimental Earthquake Engineering for Incorporating Remote Users in Large-Scale E-Science Experiments

“…The facilitation of increased access to scarce research apparatus and resources was among the first of many potential benefits of e‐science (Nentwich, 2003; RCUK, 2006) and cyberinfrastructure (Atkins, et al, 2003) technologies to be explored (Finholt, 2003; NRC, 1993). Consequently, a range of collaborative projects have sought to increase access to and aggregate data from remote shared instruments (e.g., Olson, et al, 1998) and to provide limited remote manipulation capabilities for small‐scale experimental apparatus, such as microscopes and other lab instruments (Kouzes & Wulf, 1996; Potter, et al, 2001; Sonnenwald, Kupstas‐Soo, & Superfine, 1999). What few have explored, however, are research scenarios in which the experimental specimens and apparatus are too large to be controlled effectively or observed solely by remote participants.…”

“…Such distributed collaborations can take many forms, ranging from asynchronous collaboration with shared computational and database resources (Buetow, 2005; Foster & Grossman, 2003; Foster & Kesselman, 1999) to synchronous remote participation or, as Benford, et al (1998) refer to it, “teleparticipation” in physical lab experiments. Within this latter category, degree of participation can vary from passive observation to active manipulation of physical specimens (e.g., Potter, et al, 2001; Sonnenwald, et al, 1999). How to enable effective remote participation, however, remains an open question.…”

“…The Nanomanipulator, for example, allows remote participants to conduct detailed observation and manipulation of nano‐scale materials and objects (Superfine, Falvo, Taylor, & Washburn, 2002). Other examples that allow for manipulation of specimens include the Bugscope (Potter, et al, 2001) and Chickscope (Bruce, et al, 1997) projects that provide schoolchildren with access to research equipment.…”

Constructing a Research Grade Interactive Remote Microscopy Application—Goals, Challenges, and Results

“…focus, contrast, magnification, etc. ), and simple administration, scheduling, and data archiving functionality [1,2]. Although this worked well for educational outreach purposes, it is insufficient for serious research.…”