Initial Design and Development of an Integrated Laboratory Network

Internet-based tools have been combined to allow instructors and students to more efficiently manage both classroom and laboratory activities through ...
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Teaching with Technology

Gabriela C. Weaver Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907

Initial Design and Development of an Integrated Laboratory Network: A New Approach for the Use of Instrumentation in the Undergraduate Curriculum Devon A. Cancilla Scientific Technical Services, Western Washington University, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225-9079; [email protected]

Western Washington University’s Integrated Laboratory Network (ILN)1 is a campus-wide initiative to expand the use of scientific instrumentation across the undergraduate curriculum (1). The ultimate goal of the ILN project is to provide greater access to instrumentation by removing temporal and physical restraints typically associated with limited access to scientific instrumentation. To accomplish this, a variety of Internet-based tools have been combined to allow instructors and students to more efficiently manage both classroom and laboratory activities through remote access to instrumentation, data, and supporting curricular materials. The ILN provides the essential foundation for the development of an electronic instructional laboratory. The Need for an Integrated Laboratory Network Historically, access to use analytical instrumentation at undergraduate institutions has been limited by factors such as cost, space, technology, technical personnel, the large numbers of students in introductory courses, and laboratory scheduling. These limits tend to curtail use of instruments and lead to rushed, uninspired experiments that often leave students with the impression that science only occurs in isolated three-hour laboratory sessions rather than as an iterative and on-going process. An additional bottleneck impedes the widespread use of instrumentation: software for instrument control and data analysis is not usually designed for the educational environment. As a result, unless faculty have access to substantial assistance from technicians or teaching assistants, scientific instruments are likely to be underutilized in the undergraduate curriculum. Physical barriers (access to the instrument) and time and expertise barriers (the need for assistance) are both likely to discourage the incorporation of instrumentintensive experiments into the undergraduate curriculum. Antecedents to the ILN Institutions have attempted to alleviate the instrumentation bottleneck in a number of ways (2–4), usually involving either a centralized or decentralized model for the location of instruments. More recently, the rapid advancement of Internet-based technologies has made it possible to develop a more integrated approach to the introduction and use of instrumentation into the undergraduate curriculum (5, 6). Efforts to date have ranged from simple Web pages that introduce students to instrumental theories and experiments, to sophisticated simulations that allow students “virtual control” www.JCE.DivCHED.org

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of instrumentation, to online experiments that provide “actual” instrument control and allow students or researchers to conduct real-time experiments (7–13). Many of the approaches to date have been limited, however, by their focus on providing access to or instruction on one specific device (14–16). On a larger, more comprehensive scale, the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL) of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Collaboratory Project (10) makes sophisticated instrumentation, audio– video, and electronic notebooks available over the Internet for specific research activities. The ILN’s broader scope more closely resembles the Collaboratory concept, which has been described as “A center without walls, in which the nation’s researchers can perform their research without regard to geographical location, interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources and assessing information in digital libraries.” (17). To date, the most dramatic demonstration of this vision occurred when surgeons located in New York City removed the gall bladder of a patient located in Strasbourg, France, using robotic devices connected through high speed Internet connections (18). This surgery incorporated all of the elements of the Collaboratory, including computer access to instrumentation, interactions with colleagues, and the sharing of expertise, data, and computational resources, all without regard to geographical location. The advances in medicine and medical education foreshadow the advances to be made in science and scientific education. This change was recently reflected in a report from the National Academy of Sciences that described how “Sophisticated networks and software environments can be used to break the classroom loose from the constraints of place and time to make learning available any place, any time, and to any one.” (19). The best example to date of a research and educational collaboratory involving the use of scientific instrumentation has been the Collaboratory for Undergraduate Research and Education (CURE), developed out of the EMSL of the PNNL (20). As part of the CURE project, the EMSL has developed the Collaborative Research Environment (CORE2000) collaboration system (10, 21), a toolkit designed for collaboratory development that includes audio–video conferencing, screen sharing, e-laboratory notebooks, and application-sharing tools. Despite the significant advances represented by the CORE2000 system, however, relatively few undergraduate institutions have participated in the CURE project. This, in

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part, may reflect the fact that many undergraduate institutions have not adequately prepared students or faculty to use instrumentation, for the reasons discussed previously. As a result, many students lack the foundation necessary to take advantage of access to state-of-the art instrumentation. This demonstrates that accessibility to state-of-the-art instrumentation does not guarantee use. Access to instrumentation is not the only critical factor in undergraduate education. Equally important is the development of methods to better train students and faculty across the curriculum in the use and application of instrumentation. At the heart of the ILN, therefore, is the transformation of the electronic research laboratory environment demonstrated by the CORE2000 system into an electronic instructional laboratory environment. An electronic instructional laboratory will contain all of the elements within the electronic research laboratory as well as instructional materials and templates for the development and adaptation of experiments. These materials will further be linked to commercially available classroom management systems that provide additional tools for developing online educational materials. These online capabilities will provide a more comprehensive method of training students in the use of instrumentation and provide better opportunities to educate a broader range of students in the use and application of instrumentation to various areas of science.

network ready and to include automatic samplers. Automatic samplers allow these devices to provide operation twenty-four hours per day and are an essential element to the success of the ILN. As part of the initial ILN development, the WWU administration provided a number of course-release opportunities for interested faculty. Time available through course release was an important element in the early development of the ILN since this permitted faculty to revamp lecture and laboratories to take advantage of the ILN.

Phase I: Building Consensus and Developing the Instrumentation Framework The WWU student technology fee program funded the initial development of the ILN. Composed of representatives from a variety of academic and supporting departments, an ILN working group targeted a number of high-use instruments to serve as the basis of the initial ILN. Instruments included gas chromatographs (GC), liquid chromatographs, atomic absorption spectrophotometers (AAS), and mass spectrometers (MS). The initial funding of approximately $130,000 paid to upgrade each of these instruments to be

Phase II: Providing Access to Instrumental Data: IT Really Does Matter The primary goal of this early phase was to develop a system that allowed students to conduct more realistic laboratory experiments by analyzing a wider range of sample types and having access to instrument-specific data analysis software from computer labs across campus. Because instruments were now equipped with automatic samplers, it became possible to design experiments making full use of laboratory sample types. For example, students could now prepare a wide variety of quality control samples (e.g., blanks, spikes, duplicates, calibrators) that could be analyzed outside of the time constraints associated with a typical three-hour laboratory. Instrument manufacturers (Varian, Inc.,2 and Agilent 3 are the two major instrument manufacturers represented on campus) granted permission to install their data analysis software on computers in each of the university computer labs. Our experience has been that most instrumental software is not Webbased and must reside locally on individual computers. The university’s information technology group created directories that allowed the output (data files) from each of the targeted instruments to be placed directly onto the university network, essentially creating a file sharing environment (Figure 1). This relatively simple step provides students the opportunity to access and perform in-depth data analysis away from the traditional laboratory. In addition, every computer located in a university mediated lecture hall or classroom had an ILN folder placed directly onto the desktop (Figure 2). The folder provides direct access to instrument software and connectivity tools necessary to remotely access instrumentation.

Figure 1. ILN file directories. Instrumental data is placed directly from each of the instruments into specific class files. Every student automatically has access to these directories.

Figure 2. Active desktop on each of the lecture and classroom computers. Integrated laboratory network (ILN) folder contains instrument and connectivity software.

Development Stages of the WWW–ILN

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Phase III: Providing Remote Access to Instruments NetMeeting,4 a connectivity tool within the Windows operating system is used to provide remote access to instrumentation over the Internet. In a shared NetMeeting session, the computer connected to the instrument acts as the host computer, with remote computers acting as guests. During a shared session, the guest computer “sees” the output of the instrument and can have full instrument control just as if it were connected directly to the instrument. Inexpensive video cameras and microphones are used to display instruments during a shared session, allowing the guest to see the instrument and communicate with an operator. Figure 3 shows a typical shared session with an atomic absorption spectrophotometer as it would be seen in a lecture demonstration. In a lecture setting, the instructor can use an instrument for a demonstration by easily accessing NetMeeting through an ILN folder on the desktop of all classroom lecture computers. The instructor operates the instrument in real time, modifying acquisition conditions, demonstrating the instrumental conditions and output that the students will be using in a lab, and generally operating the instrument as if the instrument were in the lecture hall. In the future, we plan to allow advanced students to remotely access instrumentation to perform individual experiments away from the laboratory.

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municate changes in experiments, provide detailed instructions on the use of instrumentation, and share the course or specific experiments with other faculty members. Data files are easily exchanged between students, which allows for a more comprehensive examination of data. For example, students can easily compare the results of unknown analyses with every other student in the laboratory, allowing for a very clear demonstration of analytical variability and uncertainty. Examples of Courses and Feedback

Phase IV: Uniting Instructor, Student, Method, and Content through a Classroom Management System Although the early development of the ILN facilitated the exchange of data between laboratory instruments and users, as well as remote access to instruments, neither the expertise of users nor classroom materials (such as laboratory manuals) could be shared between classes by the ILN. These limitations were overcome through the adoption of Blackboard,5 a commercially available course management system. Figure 4 shows a typical Blackboard page for a course that uses elements of the ILN. As Figure 4 shows, not only are data directly available to students (Data Files for Experiment), links to instrumentation data analysis software (GC–MS analysis) and other resources are also available. The instructor can easily com-

A number of courses have already successfully incorporated either some or all of the elements of the ILN into the curriculum. Courses at WWU using the ILN thus far include introductory physical geology, general chemistry, analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry, instrumental analysis, and introductory environmental science. The ILN has been used at the local high schools, allowing students to access AAS and GC–MS systems. Using the GC–MS system, for example, high school chemistry students have had the opportunity to analyze paper money for the presence of caffeine, cocaine, and a number of other chemical residues (22). Comments by the instructor6 indicate that “The students are very intrigued by the project. I am amazed that I have the opportunity to share such technology with them. ... Not only will this opportunity improve instruction in our chemistry courses, it will also allow us a new way to accomplish the technology portion of our high school’s strategic plan.” The curriculum director of the school district has stated6 that “The recent demonstration of the ILN was very impressive. The possibility of our students and staff using the advanced instrumentation available at Western and interacting with faculty is exciting. ... I see a tremendous potential for using the ILN in both our advanced science and introductory survey courses.” This same experiment is currently being used in a pilot project between the University of British Columbia (UBC) and WWU in which a pharmacology class of 140 students at UBC (80 miles from the WWU campus) is remotely accessing WWU’s GC–MS system. Faculty comments6 indicate that “In addition to the general applicability in a number

Figure 3. A typical shared session with an atomic absorption spectrophotometer as it would be seen in a lecture demonstration. Note that students see the actual instrument output, flame, lamps, and autosampler.

Figure 4. An example screenshot showing Blackboard as an interface to the integrated laboratory network. The interface provides links to instrumental data, data analysis software, and other resources.

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of disciplines in the sciences, health sciences and engineering, we see specific application of ILN in our faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences to enhance the education of the next generation of practitioners and researchers.” In the introductory physical geology course (30 students) students access a particle-size analyzer to predict the formation of a delta using a laboratory stream table. Students develop theories about the size of specific grain particles relative to the formation of a laboratory-produced delta. The students then develop a sampling plan, collect samples, and then analyze samples using the particle size analyzer (23, 24). Student feedback6 was generally positive: “It gave me a great sense of what actual analytical work is all about and made me feel like a professional”. Comments regarding linking to instrumentation within the lecture6 were similar: “It was neat to actually have a working model and then use hi-tech equipment to test it.” The general chemistry course (approximately 150 students) conducts an AAS experiment to compare the presence of manganese in unknown samples relative to a traditional titration technique. The principles of AAS are demonstrated in the lecture portion of the course by accessing the instrument and analyzing a series of samples, including calibrators, and standard reference materials. Students then perform the specific experiments and sample preparation in the lab. Student samples are analyzed by AAS using the automatic features of the AAS. Data are available to the students over the network. Each pair of students prepares four standards and two unknowns for a total of 450 samples for the class. Additional samples include the standard reference materials and continuing calibration checks. Because it takes approximately three hours to complete the sample analysis, samples are analyzed by the AAS outside of the scheduled laboratory. Without the automatic sampling capabilities and connection through the ILN this laboratory would have been impossible to perform. In general, student and faculty feedback concerning the ILN supports the positive effect of the ILN in better presenting instrumental-based science to a wide variety of students. This comment6 typifies the general faculty attitude: “The ILN will greatly expand our ability to teach students about the tools available to address current research problems.” In addition, the transferability of the ILN is supported by comments6 such as: “Your demonstration of the ILN intrigued the researchers and instructors at UBC, as it appeared to offer a concrete mechanism for enabling widespread access to research facilities and experiences for students. The fact that our two institutions are different in size and mission strengthens the transferability of the work.” Students who would never have the opportunity to use instrumentation (such as high school students) now have the opportunity to use instruments for a wide variety of applications. This will not only increase students’ overall understanding of science, it will provide a greater opportunity to develop more realistic exercises incorporating instrumentation into the general curriculum. WWU has a pending proposal to the National Science Foundation to conduct a more rigorous and quantitative evaluation of the impact of the ILN on students, faculty, and institutions.

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Future Developments of the ILN: Overcoming Obstacles to Full Implemention Much of the technology necessary to develop a universitywide ILN is easily available and often free. For example, Microsoft’s NetMeeting is packaged with most Windowsbased computers as part of the operating system. Many universities have common or shared file formats that allow for the storage of large data sets; many also have relatively robust networks. These tools provide the networking components essential to the development of an ILN and allow instruments to be easily connected over the Internet. Faculty Web sites can be used in lieu of classroom management systems. In fact, it is not the technology that proves to be the greatest obstacle to full development of the ILN—rather, hindrances most often come from humans. Although the ILN concepts and practices have been widely embraced by a number of faculty and students, some are still reluctant to incorporate the ILN into the wider curriculum. This reluctance has historical roots and is related to issues described earlier. Because of the wide variety of instrumentation, it is very difficult for faculty members to be knowledgeable in the operation of each of these devices. Even if faculty members have been teaching principles related to specific instrumentation, they often do not have hands-on experience in the operation of the instruments being introduced. Thus, some faculty are not comfortable or knowledgeable enough in the actual operation of instruments to present live demonstrations or to provide students with the information needed to process data generated by these instruments. To overcome this obstacle, instrument-specific training courses and materials are being developed to provide faculty and students sufficient background to operate instruments at a basic level. These materials will include templates for the development of experimental procedures, a library of experiments, instrument training, and Camtasia training videos showing screen recordings of instrument software being used.7 We hope to design these materials to be easily customized and used by other institutions. Conclusions There is no question that having greater access to scientific instrumentation, courses, and supporting materials through the Internet and ILN has the potential to profoundly change the way in which instrumental sciences are taught. Greater access will require the development of new laboratories capable of providing students with a more “real world” experience in the use of instrumentation rather than the traditional “canned or cookbook” laboratories commonly found in academic institutions. Increased access to instrumentation will also provide better opportunities for students to learn and practice instrumental techniques at an earlier point in their careers; we have already provided this access at the local high school level. As students move on to higher-level courses, they will once again be exposed to and then have the chance to operate these devices. This continued reinforcement of the use of instrumentation throughout the curriculum is bound to provide students with a greater understanding of these devices.

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In addition, university courses that traditionally have no laboratory component may also take advantage of the increased access. In one course, we use the AAS for the analyses of residual calcium on the fingers of students in a large introductory environmental science course. After students soak their fingers in water for a few minutes at the start of the class, the samples are collected and analyzed by AAS during the latter part of the lecture. Students are exposed to an instrumental technique and they have the opportunity to think about how to better design sampling procedures and ask specific questions relative to the use of AAS. These types of questions catalyze students’ understanding of the scientific process and how to better test hypotheses. An additional advantage to the continued development of the ILN will be the greater collaborative opportunities among participating institutions. We fully expect to allow other institutions, such as community colleges, to access and use instrumentation available on the WWU campus. This will make it possible to narrow the educational divide between the programs available at community colleges and the university. In addition, as these collaborations develop, we expect to access instrumentation available on other campuses for use at WWU. Acknowledgments Funds from the Western Washington University Student Technology Fee Program were used to support this project. Additonal funds in the form of faculty release time were provided by the Provost’s office. Varian, Inc., provided software and technical support. Notes 1. Western Washington University Integrated Laboratory Network Home Page. http://www.wwu.edu/iln/ (accessed Aug 2004). 2. Varian, Inc. Scientific Instruments Home Page. http:// www.varianinc.com/cgi-bin/nav?products/si&cid=MHLHJKJFP (accessed Aug 2004). 3. Agilent Home Page. http://we.home.agilent.com/cgi-bin/ bvpub/agilent/intl_bus/home.jsp?COUNTRY_CODE=US& LANGUAGE_CODE=eng&JPID=/go/home (accessed Aug 2004). 4. NetMeeting Home Page. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/ (accessed Aug 2004). 5. Blackboard Home Page. http://www.blackboard.com/ (accessed Aug 2004). 6. Quoted comments were collected from personal communications, informal class surveys, and surveys collected after presentations of the ILN. An example of a presentation describing the ILN at the University of British Columbia can be seen at http:// www.olt.ubc.ca/seminars/archived/iln_talk/ (accessed Aug 2004). WWU will conduct rigorous and quantitative evaluation of the effects on student, faculty, and institutions of using the ILN with funding recently received from the NSF CCLI Proof-of-Concept program (grant #0341019). 7. Camtasia Studio Home Page. http://www.techsmith.com/ products/studio/default.asp (accessed Aug 2004).

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Literature Cited 1. Cancilla, D. A. Abstr Pap Am Chem S. 2002, Part 1 Apr 7 223: 603-CHED. 2. Bell, S. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 1624–1626. 3. Steehler, J. K. J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 75, 274–275. 4. Mabrouk, P. A. J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 75, 527–528. 5. Mason, D. S. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 537. 6. Magner, J. T.; Chadwich, J. E.; Chickering, J.; Collins, C.; Su, T.; Villarba, M. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 544–547. 7. Hicks, B. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 536–538. 8. Biology Labs Online. http://www.biologylab.awlonline.com/ login.php?labname=EnzymeLab&labdir=EnzymeLab&labcode=EZY (accessed Aug 2004). 9. National Instruments, Measurement and Automation Experiments. http://digital.ni.com/productpages/niacademic.nsf/main? readform (accessed Aug 2004). 10. EMSL Colalboratory Home Page. http://www.emsl.pnl.gov: 2080/docs/collab/ (accessed Aug 2004). 11. Kouzes, R. T.; Myers, J. D. IEEE Computer 1996, 29, 40–46. 12. Kiernan, V. New Scientist 1997, 154, 24–27. 13. Holden, C. Science 1995, 268, 35. 14. Grushow, A. NMR Data Delivery and Instruction Using the World Wide Web. Presented at the 223rd ACS National Meeting and Exposition, Orlando, Florida, April 7–11, 2002. 15. Rider University, Department of Chemistry. NMR Collaborative Training Partnership. http://www.rider.edu/ (accessed Aug 2004). 16. University of Maine. Inter-Chem-Net. http://icn2.umeche. maine.edu/icn/ (accessed Aug 2004). 17. National Research Council, Committee on a National Collaboratory. National Collaboratories: Applying Information Technology for Scientific Research; National Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1993. 18. Orenstein, D. Remote Surgery: And You Thought Your Doctor Was Distant? Business 2.0, December 2001. http:// www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,35201,FF.html (accessed Aug 2004). 19. Panel on the Impact of Information Technology on the Future of the Research University, National Research Council of the National Academies. Preparing for the Revolution: Information Technology and the Future of the Research University; The National Academies Press: Washington, DC, 2002. 20. Chonacky, N.; Myers, J. Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 1997, 17, 18-23. 21. Myers, J.; Chonacky, N.; Dunning, T.; Leber, E. Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 1997, 17, 116–120. 22. Larson, E.; Kriz, G.; Wandler, C.; Patrick, D. L. http:// atom.chem.wwu.edu/sacahill/126/lab_1_assign.pdf (accessed Aug 2004); see also http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2002/ Oct/PlusSub/V79N10/p1254.pdf (accessed Aug 2004). 23. Clark, D. H.; Linneman, S. R. J. Geol. Ed., submitted for publication, 2003. 24. Clark, D. H. Dunite Dust and Deltas: Combining Stream Tables, High-Tech Particle Analysis, and the Web To Help Geomorpholgy Students Evaluate Landform Evolution. In Abstracts of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 27–30, 2002; Paper 133-13. http:// gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002AM/finalprogram/abstract_46591.htm (accessed Aug 2004).

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