Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 18, 2000

Volume 28, Number 21

Yale-donated microscope inspires
'next generation of scientists'

Students at Hill Regional Career Magnet High School in New Haven are eagerly exploring the mysteries of "inner space" via an electron microscope donated to the school by Yale.

The Zeiss EM 109 electron microscope is the only one of its kind in use in a public school in Connecticut. Barry Piekos, supervisor of Yale's electron microscope laboratory, spearheaded the effort to donate the instrument to the New Haven magnet school.

The electron microscope -- which is worth more than some schools' annual budgets -- is located in its own laboratory in the Career High School science department. The instrument is maintained by Joseph Antol, an independent specialist, who helps train teachers and students in its use.

Twenty-five students at Career High School use the microscope regularly and nearly 100 have access to it for specific projects, says Angel Tangney, who teaches an advanced placement biology class there. In addition, this fall, a class of students from Daniel Hand High School in Madison traveled to the New Haven magnet school to use the microscope in their projects. Tangney says she hopes that eventually more schools outside of New Haven will take advantage of the instrument in the future.

In Tangney's class, students place viewing samples, called grids, under the microscope and observe their characteristics. They also record their view of the grids in a snapshot that prints out for archiving and further study. Later, they can download comparison grids from special Internet sites that feature projects for the electron microscope.

"The kids are actually doing the science that you read in books and journals or newspapers, or see on the Internet," says Tangney. "They're using a piece of equipment that would normally be out of their reach in a high school. Scientists in research still rely on this same type of microscope being used by our students." Some students are so enthused by their classroom studies with the electron microscope, notes Tangney, that they come in on Saturdays on their own time to use the instrument to conduct their own research.

"There is a wonderful atmosphere in this school," says Claudia R. Merson, coordinator of the public school partnership, one of Yale's New Haven Initiatives sponsored by the Office of New Haven and State Affairs. "It has an innovative curriculum, dedicated teachers, hard-working students and fantastic equipment. When you look into the classrooms here, you truly get the sense that you are looking at the next generation of scientists."

Merson also noted that 40 students from Career High School and other city schools regularly attend classes at Yale in another component of the public school partnership sponsored by the University.

-- By Thomas R. Violante

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