Undergraduate TEM instruction by telepresence microscopy over the Internet

The use of telepresence microsopy (TPM) over the Internet for teaching is demonstrated. A high-resolution field-emission gun transmission electron microscope (TEM) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was operated by undergraduate students at Lehigh University, 800 miles away. The remote operation used commercial software and freeware. The advantage of computer- controlled TPM and is that students can access dedicated equipment not available in their home laboratory and also parallel hands-on access and instruction can be given to a much larger group of students than usually can be taught on a TEM. Drawbacks include the bandwidth of the Internet.