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Name of Collaboratory :
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Bugscope
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Logo :
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URL :
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http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu |
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Collaboratory Status
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| Operational
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Start Date :
1999
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End Date :
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Primary Collaboratory Function :
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Shared Instrument |
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Secondary Collaboratory Functions :
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Expert Consultation, Virtual Learning Community |
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Domain(s)
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biology, electron microscopy |
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Brief Description
of the Collaboratory :
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The Bugscope project is an educational outreach program for 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 Java-enabled 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 educations outreach projects.
The classroom has ownership of the project -- they design their own experiment and provide their own bugs to be imaged in the microscope. The Bugscope project is primarily oriented towards K-12 classrooms and there is no cost for the classrooms to participate in the project.
Bugscope is a successor to Chickscope, and is designed to be less expensive to run than that earlier project.
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Access to
Instruments :
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scanning electron microscope (Phillips XL20 ESEM-FEG) at Beckman Institute available online through Interactive Remote Microscopy Application (IRMA) java client, developed for this project (ESEM Image Observer and the ESEM Scope Controller, plus custom Chat client). |
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Access to
Information Resources :
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Images from Bugscope sessions automatically captured and archived on the website. The project also makes use of web forms for submitting applications, and shared online databases for managing sessions. |
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Access to
People as Resources :
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consultation from Beckman staff, one IU undergrad who does sample preparation and presets interesting spots on the sample (moving to preset spots is a function built into the IRMA client). |
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Funding Agency
or Sponsor : |
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| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) |
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Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology |
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| Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company |
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Notes on Funding Agencies/Sponsors:
Internally funded by Beckman Institute, which supported the purchase of the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). Supplemented by smaller external grants from Illinois Consolidated Telephone Company.
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Organizations with Funded Participants:
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| Organization name: |
Approx # of participants:
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Description of organization's role(s): |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) |
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Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology |
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PARTICIPANTS: |
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Notes on Participants/Organizations:
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Communications Technology
Used :
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The IRMA software for remote access and control of the electron microscope was developed for this project at Beckman. A new non-java interface is available called CGIRMA.
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Technical
Capabilities :
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Management of technical resources
Access control/login facilities
Support for transition between synch and asynch
Workflow management, Shared calendars
Asynchronous object sharing
Index/metadata, General search capability, Vetted knowledge based of multiple authors, Common file space, Data stream capture
Asynchronous conversation
Web forms, Email
Synchronous object sharing
Instrument monitoring, Shared instrument control, Share visualization
Synchronous conversation
Instant messaging/chat
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Key Articles : |
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Carragher, B., & Potter, C. S. (1998). The world wide laboratory: remote and automated access to imaging instrumentation. In Impact of Advances in Computing and Communications Technologies on Chemical Science and Technology: Report of a Workshop. Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, National Research Council. (pp. 141-153). Washington D.C.: National Academy Press.
Potter, C. S., Carragher, B., Carroll, L., Conway,C., Grosser, B., Hanlon, J., et al. (2000). Bugscope: The second year of a sustainable remote microscope project for K-12 education outreach. In Bailey, G. W. (Ed.). Proceedings of Microscopy and Microanalysis 2000. (pp. 1160-1161). New York: Springer.
Potter, C. S., Carragher, B., Stone, D., Thakkar, U., Grosser, B., Hanlon, J., et al. (1999). Bugscope: A sustainable Web-based telemicroscopy project for K-12 classrooms. In Bailey, G. W. (Ed.). Proceedings of Microscopy and Microanalysis 1999. (pp. 514-515). New York: Springer.
Thakkar, U., Bruce, B. C., Hogan, M. C., & Williamson, J. (2001). Extending literacy through participation in new technologies. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(3), 212-219.
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Project-reported performance data
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