This project concentrates on the formation of an integrated microscopy facility (IMF) in the Biology Department. The IMF supports laboratory exercises at all levels in the curriculum (freshman to graduate). The exercises are experimental in nature and can foster analytical thinking skills through students' collaborative analysis of data. Some of these students will graduate to become teachers. Southwest Texas State University produces more than 2,000 elementary and secondary school teachers each year, including 30-35 certified to teach biology. In addition, an outreach program with area high schools is being established. Therefore, project plans have emphasized adding a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) to the existing transmission electron and light microscopes to form a state-of-the-art microscopy facility. An LSCM is essential to this plan because of the nature of the images that it can provide and because of its networking capability. Imaging is computer controlled and displayed. Digitization of images permits each student to collect images from their specimens and later retrieve the images using a computer at a site remote from the IMF. Widespread use of the proposed IMF is possible because the LSCM includes a UNIX-based computer that can be fully networked. Networking with hardware already in place permits images from the IMF to be accessed from all over campus and from all over the world. Thus any teaching lab with a workstation (consisting of any modern PC or Mac) can access the IMF. Accessible images include those from all the microscopes in the IMF, as the LSCM computer can also be used to acquire and store images from these sources. The IMF allows students access to high technology in a familiar, computer environment. The LSCM provides technology that makes remote access to image files by students possible. Implementation of the objectives of this project can markedly increase the level of science education in biology and provide a model program for other universities to emulate.
