EXPANDING AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY FOR RESEARCH PREPARATION AND FACILITATION: INVESTIGATIONS USING REMOTELY OPERATED EPMA AND SEM INSTRUMENTS IN INTRODUCTORY AND UPPER-LEVEL GEOSCIENCE COURSES

Classroom strategies involving the use of traditional geoscience analytical instruments (SEM, IC, XRD/XRF, plasma spectrometry, etc.) while long practiced in our discipline, have generally reached only limited numbers of students (i.e., only at schools that could afford to buy and maintain the equipment), and are usually limited in scope, often constrained to a single lab activity, because of time limitations on student access to a single instrument and the challenges of instrument training for multiple students. From 2006-2010 the lead author conducted a pilot study with NSF-CCLI support of the research training and student learning benefits of in-class investigative activities using virtually operable microbeam instruments (microprobe and SEM-EDS). This study found significant benefits to fostering in students an investigative mindset, and in seeding more and more sophisticated follow-on student research activities, though explicit learning benefits were difficult to quantify.

Based on the promise of this initial effort, we have initiated an expanded, NSF-TUES supported investigation of remote instrument-facilitated classroom approaches, in which such strategies will be introduced in introductory and upper level geoscience courses on three other campuses (a 2-year college, an MSI, and a PUI), and a wider audience of faculty will be exposed to and supported in bringing these strategies to their classes through proactive professional development and outreach activities, including training in EPMA/SEM use. The Florida Center for Analytical Electron Microscopy (FCAEM), which routinely offers both electron microprobe and SEM analytical services via remote operation, will host all the education-related usage of the PI institutions, as well as the needs those faculty engaged in our outreach efforts. The project's workshop series will kick off this summer, and the schedule of these and other project events can be found on the FCAEM website.