NSF Award
1725756
An award is made to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois to provide instrument-based research training and hands-on classroom experimentation for undergraduate students through the acquisition of a Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy. The new instrument will help to prepare students in Environmental Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Neuroscience for more advanced science degrees and research careers. The instrument will also be available for use by local community college students and faculty for additional scientific training and data acquisition. In addition, the new instrument will be used for outreach into local K-12 classrooms via remote image access as well as through Knox's yearly summer youth program, College 4 Kids. Through these outreach activities, the project will increase area students' interest and confidence in studying the sciences.<br/><br/>The research uses of the instrument will be many and will vary across disciplines, with researchers from multiple departments at Knox and Monmouth Colleges making use of new capabilities including digital image capture, higher-resolution imaging, automated stage rotation, and elemental analysis. Research uses will include imaging newly-created hydrogels for characterization, examining fern gametophyte development and glial cell morphology, performing elemental analysis of archaeological ceramics and wetland rocks for the purposes of sourcing and interpreting environments of deposition, capturing images for 3D-printing of fish jaws, as well as digital imaging of microscopic invertebrates from soils and other environments. Researchers will be able to accurately image, measure and share data from a variety of microscopic samples, vastly increasing data accessibility as well as our understanding of small-scale processes across the sciences.
