Through this project, assistance in the purchase of a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy capability and featuring optional low vacuum (environmental) operation mode is funded. This instrument forms the centerpiece in a multidepartmental Microscopy Facility servicing students in all the natural sciences. Undergraduates are introduced to SEM-EDS technology through specific experiments that are embedded into the curriculum in a variety of revised and new course offerings. For some, specific courses featuring applied instrumentation and tutorial instruction can lead to year-long independent studies projects and roles as laboratory teaching assistants, under the supervision of both faculty mentors and the project director. Careful scheduling and supervision of instrument use enable students majoring in any of the natural sciences to interact with others from different disciplines and increase the sense of community that the university seeks to foster. New, planned, and currently unforeseeable avenues of collegial student-faculty research can develop from the remarkable experimental flexibility permitted by operating in variable vacuum modes, thus making possible both real-time observation of chemical reactions and comparison of fixed and unfixed biological specimens and SEM observation of living tissues.
