Bugscopes In The Classroom

jnagro writes "A group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have a number of interesting projects which allow K-12 students remote access to advanced scientific instruments over the web. This particular project, dubbed the 'Bugscope', lets students get a closer look at insects through an electron microscope all via a regular web-browser. The site has some interesting information, as well as some neat photos taken with the scope."

Comments

No substitute for "hands-on..."

[dpbsmith]

...well, I don't know... it sounds like a nice idea, but it seems to me that it is important particularly in the lower grades to have direct physical content with examples and objects. This seems to me to be part of a disturbing trend to replace everything real in the classroom with animated computer simulations (yes, I understand that the bugs and the electron microscope are real, but it is going to feel like watching an animation on a computer screen).

I have to think viewing a bug through a good 25-power stereo microscope, or even a decent hand lens, might be more educational. I hope that science teachers can still pry enough money out of school boards for microscopes.

Not only do you get to view the bug, but you get to see how a microscope is put together, assuming the teacher is wise enough to let you remove the eyepieces and fiddle around with the thing. Biology and physics at the same time!

You can buy a very capable stereo microscope for about half the price of a computer.