{"id":12543,"date":"2011-07-18T04:04:52","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T09:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=12543"},"modified":"2011-07-14T14:10:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T19:10:29","slug":"ut-electron-microscope-advances-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/07_18_2011\/ut-electron-microscope-advances-learning","title":{"rendered":"UT electron microscope advances learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The advanced technology of a new scanning electron microscope at The University of Toledo allows a person to see details of the hundreds of lenses in the compound eye of an ant, much smaller than a grain of sand.<\/p>\n

The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics acquired the technology, which can magnify up to one million times to see nanoparticles, with a $550,000 Chemical Research Instrumentation and Facilities Grant from the National Science Foundation\u2019s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.<\/p>\n

The scanning electron microscope, located in the UT Instrumentation Center in Bowman-Oddy Laboratories, is used not only by University faculty and students, but also by area high school students through a new outreach program that implements cyber-infrastructure to virtually bring this instrument into the classrooms. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can\u2019t bring the high school students to the instrument, then we will bring the instrument into the classrooms,\u201d said Dr. Kristin Kirschbaum, director of the Instrumentation Center.<\/p>\n

\"Kathleen<\/a>

Kathleen Singler, a science teacher at Ottawa Hills High School, used UT\u2019s new scanning electron microscope to teach her ninth-grade biology class this spring.<\/p><\/div>The SCOPE (Science\/Scientists Changing Our Precollege Education) program provides teenagers with high-quality education experiences to generate interest and proficiency in science.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get kids into technology and into science,\u201d Kirschbaum said. \u201cThey have to learn about technology and what is available and, really, they shouldn\u2019t be scared to use a $500,000 piece of equipment. It\u2019s about getting excited about science, about technology, about learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SCOPE program, which works with Ottawa Hills High School, is forming relationships with Central Catholic High School and the Imagination Station in downtown Toledo.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Singler, a science teacher at Ottawa Hills High School, who leads all the ninth-grade biology courses, said she was excited to be able to share resources with the University and allow her students to experience the technology.<\/p>\n

The students first used the microscope to look at various powders, such as sugar and talcum powder, to discover what type was left at the \u201ccrime scene\u201d of a science exercise. The class also used the microscope to identify bacteria cultures and a lab involving single-cell organisms, Singler said.<\/p>\n

The scanning electron microscope, as the name implies, uses electrons instead of light to magnify the images. It can be operated remotely through a computer program, and a camera allows its work to be watched live via the Internet. Dr. Stefania Messersmith, a lecturer at Bowling Green State University, has used the microscope in the Instrumentation Center remotely from BGSU to advance the learning in her analytical lab there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had students sit at my desk and manipulate this microscope and just zoom in and get a real feel for its capabilities,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of them thought it was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Singler\u2019s students also used the microscope as part of a science fair project working with diatoms, a unicellular type of algae.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny way that I can bring science and technology to them, I\u2019m interested in,\u201d Singler said. \u201cI want them to love science, and they get a really nice exposure to people doing science if they are around these professors and the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Dean Giolando, UT professor of chemistry, is involved with photovoltaic research and said the scanning electronic microscope has the ability to look at the individual, thin layers of a solar cell to make sure they are uniform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dimensions are so small an optical microscope won\u2019t get you that access,\u201d he said. \u201cThis instrument will help move things forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The microscope also has special attachments: an EDS detector that helps identify the elements in the subject, a STEM-detector that allows viewing samples in a transmission mode, and an EBIC detector that can show the flow of the current and thereby identify defects in semiconductors.<\/p>\n

Prior to the scanning electron microscope, which was installed last year and began use this spring, the Instrumentation Center had an older machine that used film, which limited what could be shown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new scanning electron microscope in the Instrumentation Center is helping UT students \u2014 and BGSU and area high school students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}