1 Biology 350/550 Electron Microscopy Course Description and Syllabus Fall 2006 Dr. Todd A. Kostman Halsey Science Center Rooms 156 (office) and 55 (lab) Office phone: 424-7301 EM Lab phone: 424-0811 e-mail: kostman@uwosh.edu Office Hours: M, W 2-4 p.m. or by appointment I am happy to meet with you anytime that I am free, and I will make every effort to be available. I encourage you to make appointments, as it ensures that I will available. It is easiest to communicate with me via e-mail, as I move around the building constantly during the day, so if you try to get me by phone, we will end up playing phone tag. Course Description Electron Microscopy is a comprehensive course on the fundamentals of specimen preparation, microscope operation and the production of excellent micrographs from both the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Both the theory and practice(s) of Electron Microscopy will be covered over the course of the semester during lecture and lab periods. In a nutshell, you will learn about the principles in lecture and apply them during lab. Course Objectives By the end of this semester, you should possess the following skills/knowledge: 1. Ability to prepare specimens for examination on both the TEM and SEM 2. In depth knowledge of the procedures and protocols necessary for specimen preparation for both TEM and SEM- enough knowledge to enable you to modify protocols according to the application. 3. Ability to operate both the TEM and SEM at the level I deem appropriate. 4. Basic knowledge of the design and mechanics of scope operation for both microscopes. 5. Ability to convert raw data collected from scopes (negatives or digital images) into a publishable form via a photo-enlarger or imaging software. Course Materials All lectures will be via Powerpoint, and they will be available on the D2Learn site set-up for this course. In addition, I will post items for you to read, messages for the class, and sample exams. I will make every effort to post the lectures at least a day prior to their delivery in class. The posted lectures will be in outline format, and I will fill in additional details (which you will need to know!) during the lecture period The Laboratory: What will happen in lab? Above I have given you an outline of the topic to be covered in lab each week. During lab, I will use a combination of lecture and demonstration to show you a technique, we will then devote the remainder of the lab time to 2 practicing the technique(s), with myself present to guide you along. I must stress here that attending lab is critical to success in the course. In extreme circumstances, I may be willing to let you make up a missed lab, but if it does not involve a serious illness, accident, or family emergency, you will be out of luck and have to rely on the help of your classmates. Note that you will attend either the Tuesday or Thursday section of the lab but not both. Both sections will be covering the same topics at the same time. If you need to attend a different section for just one session due to a conflict please see me. Cooperation: During the course of the lab sessions and other times, you will be working very closely with the other members of the class. I encourage you to help each other out when it comes of mastering the techniques, as this is a great way of learning them yourself. What I do not want, however, are group efforts when it comes to producing negatives and prints. Feel free to give pointers, but each of you have to do your own work. Time Commitment: One last comment I will make is about how to succeed in this class. Considering the amount of work, I deem it impossible to complete the assigned objectives during class time alone. You will have to come in at other times if you want to do well. I do restrict use of the scopes without my supervision until I have officially checked you out: once I have done so, you can use them anytime of the day or night. All other equipment may be used without a formal "checkout", as long as you feel comfortable using it. Lecture and Lab Schedule-Electron Microscopy Fall 2006 Week of Lecture Topic Lab Exercise Sept. 6 Introduction, History, Fixation Lab tour, safety, split into lab groups Sept. 13 Fixation Fixation and embedding for TEM, block trimming Sept. 20 Dehydration and embedding for Ultramicrotomy-set-up and thick sectioning TEM Sept. 27 Sectioning and staining for TEM Ultramicrotomy thick sectioning; staining thick viewing sections for LM Oct. 4 TEM -design Ultramicrotomy-thin sectioning and collecting sections on grids Oct. 11 TEM -design Staining thin sections, TEM Operation-alignment Oct. 18 Exam I-Lectures 1-6 TEM operation-focusing and taking pictures Oct. 25 TEM -image formation SEM sample preparation/darkroom procedures/TEM practice Nov. 1 SEM sample preparation SEM operation intro; TEM and SEM practice Nov. 8 SEM-design SEM operation and collection of digital images Nov. 15 Vacuum systems SEM operation practice Nov. 22 No lecture-Thanksgiving break open lab on Tuesday Nov. 29 Photography and digital imaging SEM operation-energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis Dec. 6 EM applications, other open lab microscope types Dec. 13 Second exam-lectures 6-12 open lab Grading 3 Since this is a very hands-on course, much of your grade will depend upon the time and effort you put into learning the techniques and operating the microscopes. If you put in the effort, you will do well. I am not expecting perfection, but I do expect you to do your best. With this in mind, the grading is weighted heavily towards my assessment of your performance of various tasks related to specimen preparation, scope operation, and production of final images. There will be two lecture exams, one at mid-term and one at the end of the semester to test your conceptual understanding. Graded Item Due Date Trimmed blocks Stained and cover slipped thick sections Lecture Exam I Stained thin sections TEM Checkout and Operation SEM Checkout and Operation Turn in 2 TEM negs and prints Turn in 2 SEM digital images Collection of an EDS Spectrum Exam II Micrographs and negatives, TEM SEM Plate SEM Digital Images Total Oct. 6 Oct. 20 Oct. 18 Oct. 27 Nov. 10 Dec. 1 Dec. 1 Dec. 1 Dec. 15 Dec. 13 Dec. 15 Dec. 15 Dec. 15 Points Possible 20 20 100 20 50 50 60 20 20 100 180 100 60 800 Grading Scale: I will take the number of points you earn out of and divide by 800 to obtain a percent value. I will then apply the standard 90-100=A, 87-89=A/B etc. scale to determine your letter grade. Grading sheets for each of the exercises are located in your lab notebook and need to be turned in as the items are turned in to be graded. I will then return the sheet and graded items to you. Additional information on the grading criteria for each above item: 1. Trimmed blocks: You will hand in three trimmed blocks; I will grade the best 2 of the 3 for 10pts each. What I will be looking for is shape of block face, sized of block face, height of block face (no monoliths…you will see what I mean), smoothness of the sides of the block face, and slope of the sides. 2. Stained and cover-slipped thick sections: You will hand in two slides, each with at least three sections, stained with any LM stain of your choosing. I will grade the best section on each slide, in terms of tissue quality/preservation, quality of staining/contrast, overall quality of the section. Each section will be thus worth 10pts. 3. Stained thin sections: You will hand in 2 grids on which will be hopefully at least 2 thin sections, which have been post-stained with calcined lead stain. I will grade two sections, one from each grid, on the basis of staining quality, section quality, tissue quality, and section thickness. 4. TEM checkout: On or before the due date, I will sit down with you on the TEM and observe and grade your ability to insert a specimen, saturate the beam, align the beam, align the objective aperature, change magnification, stigmate the objective lens at 100,000X, focus, and shoot a negative. 4 5. SEM checkout: On or before the due date, I will sit down with you on the SEM and observe and grade your ability to insert a specimen, turn in the beam, turn up the filament, obtain and initial image, saturate the filament, change the working distance, to up to a magnification of 10,000x, focus, stigmate, adjust brightness and contrast, collect a high-resolution image at 2,000x, and produce a photo printer printout of the image. 6. Collection of an EDS Spectrum: On or before the due date, I will give you a sample of unknown composition, and you will have to insert the specimen, set-up the scope properly, and use the EDS software (Vantage) to collect a spectrum that will identify the element(s) present in the sample. Micrographs negatives, and digital images: What you will turn into me as your final "work" in the course will determine over 50% of your grade. What will you turn in? Good question. I will break it down into what you will turn in for the TEM and the SEM: 7. TEM: You will turn in 8 negatives and 8 prints made via the photographic enlarger. The prints need to be at least 4”x6”. At least two of the negatives must be taken at a magnification above 30,000X. When I grade the negatives, I am looking to see if the image is in focus, if the amount of contrast is sufficient, if the image is actually of some cell or tissue, and if the negative was developed properly. For the prints, I am looking to see if the image is focused, if the amount of contrast is appropriate, and I also evaluate the overall quality of the image. Note that you will turn in two of the negatives and prints two weeks prior to the end of the semester...on these I can give you feedback so that you can improve the remaining images that you turn in. 8. SEM: You will be turning in a total of 10 images collected using the SEM and the Vantage Digital Imaging Software. What I would like you to do is take four of the images and turn them into a photographic plate, complete with micron bars and labels. This you will print out (on glossy paper) on one of the inkjet printers available in the lab. The other six images you will turn in as TIFF files saved to a folder on the desktop of the SEM computer. At least two of the SEM images must be acquired at above 10,000X. The other eight images can be at any magnification. You may put the above 10,000X images in the plate, or you can turn them in as TIFF’s, I leave that up to you. I will provide training on how to do all of the above, so don’t freak out yet. For all of the SEM images, I will be looking at the same criteria as for the TEM negatives and prints. As with the TEM images, you will turn in two digital images to me two weeks prior to semester’s end. These I will grade so that you can improve your SEM plate and final digital images. Academic dishonesty Students are referred to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Student Discipline Code as detailed in specific provisions of Chapter 14 of the State of Wisconsin Administrative Code. Any student(s) found in violation of any aspect of the above Code (as defined in sections UWS 14.02 and 14.03) will receive a sanction as detailed in UWS 14.05 and 14.06. Examples of violations include: looking at another student’s exam or answer sheet and copying the answers during and exam, talking or whispering to another student during an exam and receiving text messages during an exam on an electronic device. Sanctions range from a grade of zero for the assignment in question to an oral reprimand to expulsion from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Students have the right to request a hearing and to appeal sanctions (as defined in UWS 14.08-14.10). 5