SED 610Curriculum Funding Proposal
April 6, 2008Dean Papadakis
Funding Agencies:National Science Foundation (NSF) and the
South Pasadena Educational Foundation (SPEF).
Funding Request:$100,000 over a period of 5 years.
Principal Investigator:Dean Papapdakis
Co-Investigators:Other members of the South Pasadena High School
Science Department. Yearbook and school newspaper advisor
Project Name:Using Electron Microscopy as a Scientific Tool
Investigator Credentials:Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry from Westmont
College in Santa Barbara, California
Three years of Research Laboratory Experience in the Department of Dermatology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Southern California School of
Medicine.
Co-Author of two papers published in the Journal
“LIPIDS” 1984
Experience using a scanning electron microscope and a transmission electron microscope in the Micro-Devices-Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, during the summers of 1998 and 1999.
GRANTOR
We are requesting $100,000 from the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. and $2,000 from the South Pasadena Educational Foundation (SPEF) in South Pasadena, California. SPEF is a community run fund raising organization in South Pasadena that raises money through the donations of community members, and families who live in South Pasadena. Though the amount of money that is being requested from this organization is a small amount compared to the amount being requested from the NSF, it will be an important component of the entire grant proposal, that will help inform the community about what we are trying to accomplish with this project. This is important because it is the children of these community members who will benefit from this grant proposal. We want them to be made aware of this great project. By them contributing to this project financially, they will learn about the project and hopefully be encouraged to have their children be participants in the project.
PROPOSERS
I am a chemistry and physics instructor at South Pasadena High School in South Pasadena, California. I have been teaching at this school for 22 years. During that time, I have been the science department chairman for 7 years. I helped to obtain a student version gas chromatograph that can be used to analyze simple hydrocarbons. My college training in analytical chemistry using instrumentation, such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infra-red spectrometry, to study chemicals and chemical principles has helped me to be familiar with the current instrumental techniques that are available to
chemists today.
My first employment right out of college was at a research laboratory at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. This gave me experience with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and other forms of chromatography in the study of human meibomian gland lipids. We were studying the chemical composition of human lipids that come from the meibomian gland in the eyelids of humans so that we could have a better understanding of the chemical composition of normal human “meibum”, in order to be able to define what changes in chemical composition occur in the meibum of diseased lipids from the meibomian gland. This has tremendous influence in dealing with issues related to contact lens wearers. I was fortunate to be able to be a co-author with Dr. Nicholas Nicolaides, on two papers that were published in the journal called “LIPIDS”. This experience helped me to understand the process that takes place in scientific research and gave me exposure to some of the scientific tools that are available
to scientific researchers.
When I left my job at U.S.C. in the department of medicine, in order to go into the field of education, I was able to bring with me the three years of experience that I obtained in the laboratory, into the classroom. I have been teaching chemistry and physics to high school students for 22 years. The other teachers in the science department (biologists and physics teachers) who will be working with me on this project also have many years of teaching experience, which will help to ensure that this project will be successful.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
As a teacher, I have a strong sense of what skills are lacking in students today and what
things can help to bridge this gap between the skills they have and the skills they will
need when they enter college and then ultimately enter the work world. The goal of this
project is to provide a means for helping high school students to bridge this gap.
Saint Josephs Medical Center in Burbank, California, has a transmission electron
microscope that is used to analyze human tissues from their patients. This analysis looks
at the possible presence of cancer cells in these tissues, by magnifying the tissues by
thousands of times. This electron microscope is very old (thirty years old) and requires
special attention to run it. The electron microscope technician is a full time employee of
the hospital and is in charge of its operation. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, the
hospital can no longer afford to maintain this microscope and a full time technician. One
of the doctors at Saint Josephs Medical Center worked one summer at South Pasadena High School, teaching summer school biology. The hospital wants to remove the microscope but would like to find a “good home” for it. This doctor has remembered the high school and recommended us as a potential new owner, with the stipulation that a special project can be formulated that could impact high school students. There would of course be a tremendous financial cost involved in making this transaction. This is the
target of this grant proposal.
Since it is our goal as educators to not only prepare our students for entrance into college, but entrance into the work world, whether it is as some kind of professional or as a laborer, etc., having an electron microscope would be a tremendous asset to our science department. This would allow us to make strong connections between the theoretical concepts that we are teaching to our students, and a real scientific tool that is of importance in the scientific community. Not only could this scientific tool be used by biology students, but also by chemistry students and by physics students. The physics students can study the principles that the electron microscope uses, which are based on the concepts of physics that describe the particle nature of light. Namely, the idea that a particle (such as an electron) can have a wavelength and frequency associated with it, just like light. The chemistry students could also learn how an electron microscope is important for determining chemical composition of molecules based on their X-ray diffraction patterns. The biology students would of course be able to obtain tissues and prepare them in the laboratory, and study them in the electron microscope, magnifying them farther than a regular light microscope can magnify. Today, there is so much scientific knowledge, and it is very difficult for students of today to see how this knowledge applies to the real world. Using an electron microscope is a fantastic way for students to see this connection to the real world. The training that they get, would also give them an edge in the college application process, and ultimately be valuable to them if they continue to pursue a field in medicine or chemistry, etc. Below are some of the California State Science Standards as they apply to investigation and experimentation. An understanding of how an electron microscope works and being able to actually use it in a real investigation, is a direct way to meet the goals of these standards that are expressed below:
Investigation and Experimentation
1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept, and to address the content the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spread sheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data.
b. identify and communicate sources of unavoidable experimental error.
c. identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.
d. formulate explanations using logic and evidence.
e. solve scientific problems using quadratic equations, and simple trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions.
f. distinguish between hypothesis and theory as science terms.
g. recognize the use and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.
ACTIVITIES
There are several aspects to using an electron microscope, which students can learn about and be involved in. These include the following:
- Turning on and off the electron microscope.
- Learning how to actually operate the electron microscope.
- Learning how to prepare a sample that can be analyzed using the electron
microscope.
- Being able to take photographs of the images that are being observed.
In order to help accomplish these goals, the first step is to obtain money from the grant that can be used to hire a technician or the technician that was responsible for operating the electron microscope at Saint Josephs Medical Center, who can teach a set of classes in the afternoon, after the normal school day is over. These classes can be videotaped so that future classes of students can use the tapes (or DVDS) for learning the same lessons. In these lessons, the instructor will teach students the various skills that are necessary to use the electron microscope.
Electron Microscope Lessons
Lesson # 1Safety issues regarding the operation of the electron microscope.
Lesson # 2The two maintypes of electron microscopes (scanning and transmission)
and the general principles of microscopy.
Lesson # 3How to obtain a sample of living tissue from a living animal, such as a
mouse.
Lesson # 4How to slice the sample into thin enough slices that can be used in the electron microscope, using a microtome. The slices must thin enough for
the electron beam to be able to pass through the sample.
Lesson # 5How to embed the sample tissue into a plastic form holder that will be
placed into the microscope.
Lesson # 6How to actually place the embedded tissue sample into the proper location
in the microscope.
Lesson # 7How to turn on the vacuum pumps that are required for the electron
microscope.
Lesson # 8How to turn on and off the instrument. This requires about 30 minutes at
the beginning and at the end when the machine is turned off.
Lesson # 9How to adjust the magnetic and electric lenses for magnifying the image.
Lesson # 10How to perform the alignment procedure for making sure the magnetic and electric field lenses are aligned correctly. This must be done every so
often or after so many uses of the instrument.
Lesson # 11How to change the tungsten filament (which is the source of the electron
beam), which must be done after so many uses of the instrument.
Lesson # 12How to take a picture, using the X-ray film, of the image that is being
magnified.
Lesson # 13How to develop the film, using dark room techniques.
Lesson # 14How to interpret what the images are showing. In other words, to be able
to identify the various parts of a cell from the images obtained.
There are a total of 12 separate lessons that cover the operation of the electron microscope. The first two lessons examine the big picture of microscopy and will bring in concepts from both chemistry and physics. The first lesson on safety is placed first so that students do not take using the microscope, lightly and they will become aware of the dangers of the radiation that can be created by using the electron microscope. As one can surmise from this list, these lessons incorporate a set of principles and concepts that come from all three of the laboratory sciences of physics, chemistry and biology. There is even room in these lessons to bring in students who may not be interested so much in science, but are interested in the field of photography. Students who have aptitude in photography and dark room techniques, can become an invaluable part of the group of students who will make this whole project come together.
The formative testing of these skills that students are to learn, is very easy to accomplish. I will simply give students authentic assessments of each of these skills. In other words, I would have particular students turn on the electron microscope by themselves and if they do it correctly, the machine will operate properly and they will have demonstrated they have learned the skill. The other students in the project can each be responsible for a different aspect of running the instrument. Another student can be in charge of properly cutting the sample into thin slices using the microtome. Of course, I would want each of the students to be able to perform all of the tasks that have been mentioned above. This can be done on each day following the lessons. That is, the students will have a different responsibility each day and when all of the lessons are completed, each student should be able to perform all of the skills properly. The best way for each of the students to demonstrate that they have learned the particular skill, is to have them actually teach the particular skill to another student. This is the best technique that educational psychologists have agreed upon, that best helps a student to remember what they have learned. The summative assessment will involve having each student, one at a time, perform all 12 steps of the process involved in producing a picture. The assessments can also include small, written quizzes that assess various aspects of
operating the electron microscope.
Once the microscope is in place, and the project begins in September, the goal will be to teach the first 7 lessons in year one and the second set of 7 lessons in year 2. This is because the students are going to be full time students with their regular academic load, and so they will not be able to come to the electron microscope class every single day. In a two-week period of 10 class days (Monday through Friday), the students will be expected to come to the electron microscope class five of those 10 days. In other words, in week one they might come on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and in week two, they would come on Tuesday and Thursday. This implies another idea, which is that this class is really geared for underclassmen that must have the capability of being involved for at least a two-year commitment. This can include juniors who would be involved in 11th grade and 12th grade. It could include sophomores who would be committed in 10th grade and 11th grade or it could include freshmen, who would be involved in 9th grade and 10th grade. I would hope that those who are involved early, would be interested in continuing for a third or even a fourth year. Then they could be more directly involved (as upperclassmen) with teaching what they have learned, to the younger students. At the outset, I will work with the assistant principal and the registrar, to have all of the students who participate, to earn actual credits that can count towards graduation. This way, it will not just be an extra-curricular activity, but a real class with grades that the students earn. One of the problems that could arise is if the administration does not support the project. That is, they might support it in principle, but it would be nice to be able to
actually have the electron microscope class count as one of the five classes.
Here is a further breakdown of the 14 lessons that are mentioned above. The first two lessons will have assignments that come from the students’ chemistry and physics textbooks, which will bring in topics from radioactivity from chemistry and optics from physics. Lesson three and four will bring in problems from the biology textbook that will correlate with tissue and cell structure. Lesson five and six are simply electron microscope techniques, which will not be found in the student’s textbooks. Lesson seven will bring in problems from a chemistry textbook that discusses gas laws and gas pressure. Lesson eight is again a simple electron microscope lesson. Lesson nine, ten and eleven will bring in problems from the physics textbook that deal with electricity and magnetism. Lesson twelve and thirteen will be related to topics found in a textbook on photography. Maybe the newspaper and yearbook advisor can be involved in this aspect of the project or at least make recommendations. The final lesson (14) will bring in problems from the biology textbook that deals with cell structure and function.
DISTRIBUTION AND CONTINUATION
There are many ways to share the results of this project using the electron microscope with high school students.
- One way is to have students put together a Science Journal that would be published by the school newspaper group and have the students who are involved with the electron microscope, write the stories and articles that would describe what is happening with the project.
- Another way would be to have one or two students join me when I attend a chemistry or physics meeting for other high school chemistry and physics teachers. These meetings, which occur at least twice a year, have an open call for teachers to share new ideas and to make presentations. I would bring along with me one or two of my students and have them present with me, the results of our electron microscope project.
- We could also produce a brochure that would summarize the results of our project, including photographs of things that we have observed under the electron microscope. This brochure would help to make other students aware of this opportunity and this would help to encourage more students to participate.
- A fourth way would be to also advertise our results in the monthly newsletter that the principal of the school puts out to the parents of the community. This will help to ensure the participation of future students by encouraging the parents to get their children involved.
After the money has been completely used up, the cost of operation of the microscope will hopefully just be for electricity and water, which the school can support. The cost of materials can be accomplished by future donations from the South Pasadena Educational Foundation, which was mentioned at the beginning of this proposal. The cost of materials would most likely not be too substantial, and this would be an amount that this organization could support, through the continued donations of the