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Virtual Instruments
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Two virtual instruments—computer software packages that simulate scientific instruments—can train students to use the key tools they need in high school biology and chemistry labs. Developed by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, the Virtual Microscope and the Virtual Spectrophotometer can substitute for real instruments in laboratories that lack equipment or can familiarize students with the instruments' operation before they encounter the real tools. The Virtual Microscope allows students to view virtual slides of biological samples (such as a normal liver and a liver damaged by cirrhosis) by selecting them from a menu. (The tissues are human in origin, stained with hematoxylin and cosin, and provided by the university’s Pathology Department.) With the Virtual Spectrophotometer, students measure the absorbance or transmission from virtual samples by selecting them from a menu. To access the instruments, teachers must first register and then will need to download very large files, or they may request a CD from STARS@UTSouthwestern.edu. A Teacher’s Manual explains how to download, install, and operate the instruments on the teacher’s computer and on individual computers in a classroom or a computer lab. While teachers cannot add virtual slides to the Virtual Microscope, they can add samples to the Virtual Spectrophotometer; a table of absorbances at a series of wavelengths in the proper format is all that is required. Although no lesson plans are currently available, the developer plans to provide them in a future version of the software and seeks feedback from teachers.
Virtual Microscope
Students can use a mouse to manipulate the dials and knobs of this virtual microscope to understand the operation of the real instrument.
Media: Web pageProgram Director: Joel Goodman, Ph.D.
Award Years: 2007
Summary: The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School is an academic medical center in Dallas, Texas. Its HHMI-funded initiatives include:
- The STARS Summer Triathlon, a rich program for high school biology teachers that features training in high school lab exercises, a series of biomedical symposia on basic science topics, and a summer of research at the bench. The program is administered through the office of Science Teacher Access to Resources at Southwestern (STARS) at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas;
- The development of Virtual Instruments (VIs)—computer software packages that simulate physical instruments—designed for classroom use. Biomedical engineering students have built a Virtual Microscope and a Virtual Spectrophotometer and are building a Virtual Gel Box and a Virtual Thermocycler. The VIs, available to all biology high school teachers at no charge, are meant to substitute when real instruments are not available in the classroom and also to ease the fear of the unknown that many teachers feel when approaching real instruments; and
- The construction of Science Suitcases, which are portable, interactive displays built by students in the Biomedical Communications program at UT Southwestern in collaboration with high school teachers and students under the supervision of the Museum of Nature and Science. The suitcases are mobile demonstration modules of scientific principles taught during the Triathlon, including introduction to chemistry, biochemistry, enzymes, membranes, organelles, cell respiration, and photosynthesis. Besides physical displays, the suitcases also include DVDs and other multimedia.