Bugscope: A practical approach to providing remote microscopy for science education outreach

The Bugscope project is an educational outreach program for kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) classrooms. The project provides a resource to classrooms so that they may remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image i nsects at high magnification. The microscope is remotely controlled in real time from a classroom computer over the Internet using a Web browser. Bugs cope provides a state-of-the-art microscope resource for teachers that can be readily integrated into classroom activities. The Bugscope project provi des a low-cost, sustainable model for research groups to support K-12 educa tion outreach projects.