LumpkinBugscope Talk

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Bugscope Current and Future Directions
The Bugscope Team Imaging Technology
Group Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and
Technology University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign February 1, 2005 ITG Forum
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Background Expectations

• What, if expensive, but important scientific
  instruments such as Hubble Telescope, electron
  microscopes, or even remote sensing satellites
  were on the network, and students could queue up
  requests for their use? This is not a farfetched
  scenario. (Soloway, 1994)
• Using a web browser, students, teachers, teacher
  educators, and scientific researchers at any
  location and at any time have the potential to
  access the latest scientific instruments with
  having to travel to a remote site or invest in
  the hardware themselves. Thus, the web becomes a
  world Wide Laboratory.

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The Promise of a World Wide Laboratory?

• Do researchers want to use remote
  instrumentation?
• When they have to.
• To avoid travel.
• Cannot be otherwise controlled.
• Interest in remote technologies.
• Remote instrumentation is part of the daily
  practice in some areas of science
• Why?
• Unique and/or expensive instrumentation
• Education, outreach, and training

Mars Pathfinders land rover, Sojourner. Image
Credit (http//mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/ MPF/, July
31, 1997)
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World Wide Laboratory for Education

• Has found a real niche for education
• Why?
• schools will never have an ESEM
• engagement with the community
• exposure to technology
• Students, teachers, and teacher educators need to
  learn about this technology for doing science
• Extension of the textbook
• Provides a tech connection to the material that
  fits today's learning styles

A Nashville second-grader examines the image of
an ant on her computer screen while using
Bugscope. Credit http//www.tennessean.com,
April 18, 2001
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Previous Work Chickscope

• Problem Demonstrate remote access and control of
  a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instrument for
  research and education.
• Solution Chickscope, a project that allowed K-12
  students and teachers in ten classrooms,
  including an after-school science club and a home
  school, to study the 21-day development cycle of
  a chicken embryo using a remote MRI instrument
  (Bruce et al., 1997).

Seventh-grade students learning about acquiring
MR images from their school classroom in 1996
http//chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/
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Previous Work Chickscope Impact

• gt 2000 images acquired
• Turned on classrooms worldwide interest
• Project material continues to be used in
  classroom curriculum
• 5.7 million website hits in 2003 (average of
  15,000/day)
• If kindergartners could use the system easily,
  then so could busy scientists.
• Limited instrument resources
• Required large support infrastructure
• Operational costs 5,000/classroom
• Frequency once!

Sample image acquisition from a primary school
classroom
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Previous Work Stardial

• Problem Provide real-time images of the night
  sky to students for access and study.
• Solution Stardial, an autonomous astronomical
  camera, to provide students with authentic data
  complete with irregularities and surprises
  (McCullough and Thakkar, 1997). Stardial data can
  be used for discovering comets and asteroids.

Asteroid (3) Juno identified by a student
(http//www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/mpeg/aster3.mp
eg, September 1996)
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Previous Work Illinois Chickscope

• Problem How to scale a (successful) project?
• Solution Illinois Chickscope (ILCS), a
  professional development program for K-12
  teachers interested in integrating Chickscope
  materials into their curriculum (Bruce, Thakkar,
  and Hogan, 1999).

A pre-service teacher demonstrating egg candling
to a second-grader
http//inquiry.uiuc.edu/partners/chickscope/chicks
cope.php3
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Bugscope What is it?

• An educational outreach program that provides
  real-time, web-based access to ITG's
  Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope
  (ESEM), so that children around the world can
  look at 'bugs.'

• Problem How to scale and sustain a remote
  scientific instrumentation project?
• Solution Build a software system that automates
  repetitive processes develop a repeatable
  framework for delivering remote sessions and
  gather a large, diverse, and extremely talented
  team that values the benefits of educational
  outreach for everyone.

• Instrument resources 2-4 hours/week
• No cost to classrooms for participation
• Frequency every week

http//bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu
Bugscope session at Crown Academy in Chicago,
IL. Credit Chicago Tribune
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Bugscope How it Works?

• A teacher or teacher educator submits an online
  application, which includes a project proposal,
  for her or his classroom.
• Classroom is selected for participation and a
  time is scheduled for remote use of the
  instrument.
• Classroom mails in insect specimens.
• Schedule a testing session with the classroom
  teacher.
• Bugscope team prepares specimens, inserts these
  into the microscope, and interacts with the
  students throughout the session.
• Images acquired by the classroom are
  automatically stored in an online,
  publicly-accessible database.

Bug Farm
Bugscope team members from University High
School, IL
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Bugscope and Scientific Research Enterprise

• Students, teachers, and teacher educators have
  the opportunity to mail in specimens of insects
  and other arthropods, and study the high
  magnifications images of these specimens on the
  microscope (Thakkar et al., 2000).
• Like scientists, they have to propose a project
  to request the use of an expensive scientific
  instrument.
• Like scientists, they are responsible for
  planning an experiment and then making efficient
  and good use of the time that they are allocated
  on the instrument to carry out their own
  investigations.
• Like scientists, they have an infrastructure of
  people and technology to assist them.

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Bugscope Technology ESEM

• Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope
• Relatively simple sample preparation / robust
  samples
• Potential ESEM magnification gt 300,000x
• Typical K-12 light microscope magnification
  40x-100x

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Bugscope Technology Client
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Bugscope Technology Chat

• Live interaction with remote classroom
• Simple interface
• Conversation window
• Preset information
• List of participants
• Written entirely as CGI
• No extra software needed
• Only accessible to those participating

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Bugscope Technology Demonstration
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Bugscope Technology cgirma

• Simple replacement for the Java interface
• Designed for schools with
• Mac OS 9
• Windows 9x
• Microsoft MRJ
• Firewalls
• Limited in functionality
• No measurement tools
• No live video
• Slower, infrequent updates
• Harkens back to original Chickscope interface
• Entirely written in HTML
• Controlled by CGI
• New version in development

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Bugscope Technology Website
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Bugscope Interface Image Database
Database pages from session 2003-049, 9/24/03,
Marquette University
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Bugscope Where, When, and How Often?

• Alaska
• Hawaii

• OtherCountries
• Mexico
• Canada
• Ireland
• UK
• Australia

• Bugscope Facts 1/2005
• 189 classroom sessions
• 5000 students
• 31679 images acquired
• 38 states represented
• 6 countries

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Bugscope School and Participant Types
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Bugscope Grade Levels Across K-12
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In exploring the initial data, three data points
were chosen

• Illinois
• - State with highest number of sessions
• - Close to home
• Wisconsin
• - Unique utilization
• (Pre-Service Teacher Education)
• International
• - Unique perspective (Intercultural)

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Illinois Sessions

• Twenty-three schools (3 private, 20 public)
  participated to produce the 50 Illinois sessions.
• 12 Elementary Schools
• 4 Middle Schools
• 3 High Schools
• 1 University
• 2 Schools instructing all grade levels
• 1 Summer teacher technology seminar
• Of the 50 Illinois session proposals, thirteen
  were submitted by males and 37 were submitted by
  females.
• Of those 23 schools, 11 feedback forms were
  submitted. 5 schools (repeat sessions from
  various schools) submitted feedback on their
  session usage.
• Illinois schools produced a total of 7619 images.

Fruit Fly Eye 4805x Image acquired by
Carpenter Elementary (2004-039) Park Ridge, IL,
USA
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IllinoisLessons Learned

• The majority of schools in Illinois obtained
  Bugscope information from either their districts
  curriculum specialist or through Internet
  research.
• In the majority of sessions, students tended to
  work in pairs or small groups within classroom.
• Bugscope implemented into
• Science course activities (Typically
  General/Overview Science Courses)
• Incorporated into Entomology or Microscopic units
• Computer, Math, and English course activities all
  in conjunction with the Science course.
• Of the schools submitting feedback forms, all
  mentioned they would like to participate with
  Bugscope again.
• The amount of detail and complexity beyond our
  range of vision helped to instill in them a sense
  of their scale perhaps better than any other
  activity we could have tried (2004-036).

Grasshopper Claw 84x Image acquired by Next
Generation School (2004-036) Champaign, IL, USA
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Wisconsin Sessions

• Two schools participated to produce the 11
  Wisconsin sessions.
• University School of Education
• Middle School
• Of the 11 session proposals, all were submitted
  by females.
• Both of those schools submitted feedback on their
  session usage for a total of 4 feedback forms
  (repeat sessions).
• Wisconsin schools produced a total of 925 images.

Spider Head 82x Image acquired by Marquette
University (2004-029) Milwaukee, WI, USA
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WisconsinLessons Learned

• Both schools in the Wisconsin sample obtained
  Bugscope information through internet research
  and direct contact with Bugscope team members.
• In the majority of Wisconsin sessions, students
  tended to work small groups as part of
  pre-service teacher education.
• Bugscope implemented mainly into
• Pre-Service Teacher Education Courses
• Providing future teachers with instructional,
  microscopic, and other technology options for
  implementation into their future classrooms
• All teacher participants in the Wisconsin sample
  mentioned their desire to use Bugscope again.

Collapsed Mosquito Eye 2639x Image acquired by
Marquette University (2001-065) Milwaukee, WI,
USA
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International Sessions

• Five schools (1 private, 4 public) participated
  to produce the 6 International sessions.
• 2 Elementary Schools
• 1 Middle Schools
• 2 High Schools
• Of the 6 International session proposals, 2 were
  submitted by males and 4 were submitted by
  females.
• Two schools submitted feedback forms.
• Countries represented include
• Canada
• Ireland
• UK
• Mexico
• Australia
• International schools produced a total of 1005
  images.

Bee Head 46x Image acquired by Kimberly Park
State School (2004-028) Brisbane, Queensland,
Australia
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InternationalLessons Learned

• The majority of international schools obtained
  Bugscope information from Internet research
  (followed by contact with Bugscope team members)
  and academic conference attendance (where
  Bugscope was featured as an educational tool).
• In both of the International sessions, students
  worked together in larger classroom groups
• Bugscope implemented into
• Science classrooms
• General Science courses (with focus on Microscope
  or Entomology Unit)
• Free-topic choice
• Teacher allowed to teach any topic that semester
  chose Bugscope
• Both International schools who completed feedback
  forms mentioned their desire to implement
  Bugscope in their future classrooms.

Spider Palp 360x Image acquired by St.
Wolstans Community School (2003-082) Celbridge,
Co. Kildare, Ireland
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Overall CommonalitiesStudent Learning

• The main benefits to student learning, as
  reported by teachers included
• Insect facts (i.e. entomological education)
• Use of electron microscope (i.e. degree of
  magnification, exposure to new technology), and
• Interaction with scientists (i.e. through
  real-time chat sessions)
• The students were totally engrossed in the
  session and they talked about it for several days
  after the session (2004-036).
• International countries differed in their
  response in that they found the interaction with
  Americans to be just as important an addition to
  student learning (i.e. intercultural
  communication context)
• Students learned about the electron microscope
  in a meaningful way and they became more familiar
  with using computers as a learning tool. It also
  made them think about the US, time differences,
  geography etc. We all had great fun, staff and
  students alike and they loved the novelty of live
  chats with real Americans! (2003-082).
• The Teacher Education professor from Wisconsin
  also differed in that she found additional
  benefits to giving future teachers varied
  instructional tools that facilitate inquiry-based
  learning.

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Overall CommonalitiesTeacher and Teacher
Educator Benefits

• The main benefit to teacher implementation, as
  indicated by the teachers included student
  exposure to the experience itself.
• Students love this culmination activity in their
  microscope study (2004-041).
• International teachers many Illinois teachers
  (Both data points possessing a younger student
  population than the Wisconsin sample) differed.
  They found teachers communication with
  scientists to be just as important a benefit from
  an instructional viewpoint.
• I learned that I could handle an interactive
  internet project. If you told me a couple of
  years ago that I would have participated in
  something like this, I wouldn't have thought it
  were possible. It is good to know that I have
  access to experts to help me teach what my kids
  need to know about technology and insects
  (2002-016).
• The Teacher Education sample from Wisconsin also
  differed. Teacher benefits in this sample were
  realized from two perspectives
• The professors perspective - providing future
  teachers with instructional, microscopic, and
  other technology options for implementation into
  their future classrooms, and
• The students (future teachers) perspective
  being exposed to these resources now for
  implementation later.

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Bugscope How is it Received?

• National Media Coverage
• New York Times
• National Public Radio
• Chicago Tribune
• Chicago Sun-Times
• Los Angeles Times
• Houston Chronicle
• Irish Times

• Other Attention
• Addresses NSF's desire to connect the academy
  with the community
• Featured by Rita Colwell (NSF)
• NSF Science of Collaboratories (Michigan)
• Integrated into curriculum

• Local Media Coverage
• News-Gazette
• Sioux City Journal
• Cherokee County Herald
• Grosse Pointe News
• Liffey Champion
• Texas City Sun
• Noe Valley Voice

• Web
• 60,131 front page views in 2004 (165 sites
  requesting the main page/day)
• 2.1 million document hits in 2004

New York Times, June 17, 1999
CU News-Gazette, February 13, 2004
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Bugscope Integration into Schools and
Universities

• Marquette University
• Integrated into teacher education courses on
  technology in the classroom
• published a paper with ITG
• New Jersey
• Ho-Ho-Kus Public School, 5th grade
• enrichment component to larger inquiry-based unit
  on microscopes
• authentic context
• connected every year for last several
• Park Ridge School District
• integrated into curriculum
• district technology coordinator
• 27 sessions, 2002-2004

Spider Spinneretes with Small Amount of Webbing,
1600x Acquired by Marquette Students, Milwaukee,
WI
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Bugscope Current Offshoots

• Virtual Laboratory(NASA's Kennedy Space Center
  and Learning Technologies)

• Bugscope on a DVD
• Educating future scientists by providing access
  to virtual instrumentation
• First Instrument was a Virtual SEM
• Provides a realistic virtual experience for fully
  exploring a pre-captured dataset
• Allows full manipulation
• Phase II Funded
• VSEM Extensions
• Light Microscope
• Atomic Force Microscope
• specimen labeling
• online sample repository
• data!

Virtual Scanning Electron Microscope (VSEM)
Interface
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Bugscope Flexible Outreach for Researchers

• Ongoing
• NSF Instrumentation for Materials Research (IMR)
• micro-CT
• bug internals
• NSF Nanoscale Science Engineering Center (NSEC)
  on Directed Assembly of Nanostructures"Nanoscope"
  
• computer chips, faculty samples
• w/ BI faculty Dr. Paul Braun
• Finished and Potentials
• "Kidscope" with Dr. Aman Haque at Penn State
• IMLS Early Education Learning Consortium
• Nano-CEMMS (BI faculty Rogers, Shannon)

NSEC Nanoscope Homepage
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Bugscope Future Directions

• "Bioblitz" _at_ Crystal Lake Park (Spring '05)
• Collaborations with John Hunt, Central Queensland
  University, Australia
• Book chapter on Bugscope in NSF book The Impact
  of Educational Technology on K-16 Science
  Instruction--written by Bugscope Team
• Potential collaborations in Sweden (LIS
  collaboratory) and Univ. of Alaska
• large-scale Center grant for new technology
  development, and
• longitudinal study of the impact of Bugscope
• new remote instruments

Shriveled Mosquito Eye, 2560x Acquired by Urbana
MiddleSchool 7th Grader
An entire Wooly Adelgid, 350x Acquired by 10th
Grader fromCroton-on-Hudson, NY
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Acknowledgements People

• Chas Conway
• Jessica Eckstein
• Glenn Fried
• Ben Grosser
• Lori Heil
• Ben Miller
• Annie Ray
• Scott Robinson
• Janet Sinn-Hanlon
• Umesh Thakkar
• Dan Weber
• Michelle Wetzler

sessions, documentation educational
evaluation co-director co-director,
programmer correspondence, scheduling, feedback
gathering programmer online entomology
consultant sessions, ESEM engineer graphic
design education outreach manager, programmer,
website, sessions publicity, data management
Bugscope Alumni Deb Aronson, Bridget Carragher,
Liana Carroll, Martin Ceperley, Nick Kisseberth,
Clint Potter, Joseph Sapp, Philippa Soskin, Dana
Stodgel, David Stolarsky, David Stone, Josie
Wiegel
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Acknowledgements Funding

• ESEM Funding
• Session Support
• Original Computation Hardware
• Virtual Laboratory
• NSEC Nanoscope

National Science Foundation,Beckman
Foundation Illinois Consolidated
TelephoneCompany IBM NASA NSF
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Comments and Questions?
http//bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu