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 Digital Microscopy Leadership
Field Testing--Brookville, PA
While the Project Zoom instructional
staff has considerable teaching experience with DigiScope
Technology, we felt it prudent to run a full-scale test of
equipment and lessons with real middle school students. We believed
that early classroom trials would provide opportunities to “work
out the bugs” while receiving valuable input and advice from
practicing middle school science teachers and their students. We
were not disappointed. |
Cheri Keys, a middle school teacher of science at Brookville Area
School District in rural western Pennsylvania, volunteered her
services. Permission to run the field test was received from James
Estep, Superintendent of Brookville. All parents of Cheri’s students
were sent and returned signed Permission Slips allowing students to
participate in the Zoom Project and be photographed. Dr. Bruce
Smith, Professor of Science Education at Clarion University,
provided 14 DigiScopes on loan for the trial. He also provided
initial technical assistance. Brookville Area School District
provided the laptops to complete the DMT system.
All 7 of Cheri’s 7th grade science classes used the DigiScopes for 3
weeks. Approximately 150 students were involved, working in teams of
2 students at each DigiScope station. It is important to note that
all the stations, including DigiScopes and laptop computers, were in
Ms. Keys’ regular classroom, not a fixed science lab. All DMT
systems were placed on regular student classroom desks.
Cheri secured live specimens creating a ZOOM ZOO of critters
including Daphnia, Paramecia and other Protozoans, Hydra, Planaria,
and many more. Cheri taught the students to use the DigiScopes, make
wet mount slides, taught many middle school lessons related to ZOOM,
analyzed her instructional experiences, and shared them with the
Zoom project staff—enabling modifications and improvements for
future Project ZOOM teacher education programs slated for Cairo and
Rome.
Cheri’s students were quickly proficient in the use of the
DigiScopes. Enthusiasm and interest ran very high. Student comments
including “This is awesome!” “Ms. Keys, you’ve gotta see this!” and
“Oh, this is so cool!” were indicative of the sustained excitement
throughout the DigiScope unit.
Following are photos of Cheri Keys’ middle school students in action
during Field Testing in Brookville, PA classrooms.
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Field testing the DigiScopes at Brookville Area School District began with Ms. Cheri Keys, the middle school science teacher of Grade 7, learning to use DigiScopes on her own—linking a DigiScope to her own laptop, testing the Motic software, and observing live specimens.
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Next, Cheri set up 14 stations, each containing a DigiScope and a laptop. Teams of 2 students worked together. About half of the DigiScopes were 150s and the other half, 300s. |
Here is a DigiScope 300 set up and ready to go. |
Cheri provided instructions on the use of DigiScopes to each of her classes of 7th graders. Each day she taught 7 classes of approximately 20 students each. Her DigiScope unit of instruction, which moved from observations of organisms to investigative experiments, lasted 3 weeks. It was coordinated with a textbook unit on microorganisms.
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Digital Microscopy Leadership - Field Testing-Brookville, PA - Page 2 ->
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