Like science fiction, the images on an Arizona State University web page grab students right away: the eerie craters of a yeast bud, the hypnotic pattern of a snake's skin, the dots and dashes on the surface of a compact disc spelling out a rock band's opus.
They're produced by a powerful research tool that can magnify objects up to a billion times in three dimensions, the scanning probe microscope.
But what hooks students' attention is that they can operate the microscope remotely, over the World Wide Web. Students in schools far from campus can even design their own experiments, manipulating the Nobel Prize winning microscope with a mouse to get results that are not yet available to most laboratories in the country.
ASU is merging cutting-edge science and technology with state-of-the-art telecommunications to bring both equipment and teaching to public schools, through the IN-VSEE project.
Students from community colleges and high schools around the world can watch live scientific experiments using the microscope being conducted at ASU. Because ASU has developed software for operating the microscope remotely over the web, the students could be in Denver, the researcher in Denmark.
"There's the 'wow' factor in letting students actually see atoms," says Vince Pizziconi, bioengineering professor. "It's a powerful thing to bring a student to this level of research so quickly. High schools and community colleges would never have access to this kind of technology.
"This project gives young students the chance to learn about science concepts in a visual, interactive way, sparking increased interest and perhaps even careers."
IN-VSEE, for Interactive Nano-Visualization in Science and Engineering Education, is a collaboration of an ASU-led consortium of university and industry scientists, community college and high school science faculty and museum educators.
According to B.L. Ramakrishna, project director, the group came together with "a common vision of creating an interactive website to develop a new educational thrust based on remote operation of advanced microscopes."
All the forces for the innovative project came together in January 1996, when four ASU scientists--who had begun teaching the world's first undergraduate scanning probe microscope course at ASU two years ago--realized its potential for bring the excitement of science into young students' classrooms.
They wanted to grab the interest of teenagers in the last two years of high school and the first two years of college, when they're making decisions about college majors and careers, according to Ramakrishna. Anxious to meld research and education with outreach, they applied for and received funds from the National Science Foundation.
ASU was already strong in microscopy, having one of the nation's few high resolution electron microscopy centers. The project has since drawn unprecedented support.
The Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Education have variously given supplementary funds, staffing and space. Ramakrishna and chemistry Professor Bill Glaunsinger are from liberal arts, and Pizziconi and Associate Professor Tony Garcia are from engineering. Anshuman Razdan, technical director of PRISM, developed the software.
The Arizona Science Center is a partner with ASU in the project, along with microscope manufacturer TopoMetrix and Motorola. Other educational partners are the University of Arizona, Chandler-Gilbert Community College and Chandler High School.
At CGCC, a biology class beginning to use the remote technology has found the experiments make difficult concepts easier to understand. Currently three top Chandler High students are helping test and refine the multimedia teaching modules.
"Up to now, distance learning has been passive," says Pizziconi, who is in charge of developing the modules. "But in education you're competing with Nintendo and the Mario Brothers. This is a chance to teach key science concepts in an intense, visual, interactive way, getting students engaged in something that's real, versus something in a textbook."
Having the microscope on the web has drawn interest from researchers around the globe, according to Garcia. A medical school student in Puerto Rico has sent mutant yeast cells to be placed under the microscope, to see how certain drugs affect the cell walls. A marine
geologist in South Carolina sent microfossils from the Mediterranean.
In return for using the microscope, each agreed to let students participate in their research, collecting and analyzing data. At specified days and times, classes at remote locations can watch the experiments being conducted.
"We want young students not to see science as a bunch of dead people in textbooks, but as people doing research right now, in teams, in ways that will have an impact," says Garcia.
"When researchers collaborate, inviting people to participate in their research, the public gets a better return on their money. This project is a model for that."