Virtual microscope and spectrophotometer: Application to advanced placement biology and chemistry lessons

Abstract

Instruments required for science labs are often beyond the budgetary scope of public schools, or are improperly maintained in working order. In addition, many experimental samples are either difficult or expensive to purchase. This limits the exposure of students in grades 6-12 to meaningful science labs in biology, chemistry and physics. Virtual instruments address these problems by providing a realistic laboratory experience to help students understand both the basics of the instrumentation as well as how to operate the specific instruments. Additionally, the flexibility incorporated in these virtual instruments enable students to meet the learning goals for a range of established lesson plans. We have developed virtual instruments in National Instruments’ LabVIEW programming environment and designed them to meet the needs of the Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum in Texas. At this time, two virtual instruments have been developed, virtual microscope (VScope) and virtual spectrophotometer (VSpec). The VScope serves as an interactive microscope emulator with the capabilities of a research grade microscope. The VScope has advanced features including various objective lens (4x, 10x, and 40x), xy stage controller, coarse and fine focus adjust, and a user-controlled condenser. Images are taken from a high-end microscope to provide data for specific AP labs. The VSpec mimics an analog type spectrophotometer and has wavelength selector, zero-calibration, and max-calibration. In each case, students learn how to operate the instrument and acquire data while being allowed to make common mistakes. Here, we display the basic capabilities of each instrument and demonstrate how they can be utilized with specific AP lesson plans (e.g. Biology Lab 4, Chemistry Experiments 13 and 24). As a flexible, cost-effective means to enable AP Biology and Chemistry courses, these instruments are intended to expand the exposure of secondary school students to science and to increase the pool students interested pursuing engineering degrees. the School of Aerospace Program Manager in the installation and testing of Spain’s air system. in physiological signal processing, design of virtual medical instrumentation, control systems, noninvasive physiological measurements, vital signs, nystagmus, sleep & performance decrement, spatial disorientation, acceleration (G)-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) and neural network analysis.