A Computer Controlled Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope Equipped with an Energy Analyzer for Special Investigations on Electron Diffraction- and Channeling Patterns

A scanning electron microscope was equipped with a double tilting stage, driven by stepping motors, to investigate electron channeling patterns (ECPs) and large angle convergent beam patterns (LACBPs) of single crystals. Transmitted electrons may be energy-selected by a magnetic sector-field energy analyzer. The recording of experimental data and the experimental arrangement are controlled by a microprocessor system, including a picture storage unit of 512 x 512 pixels of 16 bit. Recorded patterns can be stored on 1 Megabyte floppies. A set of useful programs allows one to perform calculations with stored patter ns, e.g., contrast enhancement or -inversion, noise reduction, difference or quotient of two patterns etc. The possibility of background subtraction (e.g., in patterns recorded with characteristic energy loss electrons) allows one to get true K-loss convergent beam patterns. Other recording modes allow one to get two CBPs simultaneously recorded with electrons of different energy losses, to measure angle dependences of energy selected electrons, or to take electron energy loss spectra. A special processor program generates a theoretically calculated CBP or ECP on the TV screen and prints out a list of all band edges up to a chosen limit of Miller indices (hkl). The program requires the coordinates of two known poles and some crystallographic properties of the investigated material. Thus complete indexing of recorded diffraction patterns is easily possible. The system has been applied, e.g., to investigate localization effects of electron Bloch-waves in graphite

Biodiversity Conservation Efforts in the Complete Education Reform for Galapagos: A Participatory Approach to Curriculum Development in Environmental Education

Faced with rising human populations, the expansion of invasive, introduced species populations, and the over-harvest of commercial marine resources in the Galapagos Islands, the Ecuadorian National Congress passed the Special Law for Galapagos in March of 1998. The Law establishes biodiversity conservation and sustainable development as the principle objectives of the provincial government and authorizes the Complete Education Reform as one of the measures to achieve them. The Reform mandates that the environment and civic responsibility serve as cross-curricular elements in a new school curriculum that responds to the realities of the province. To initiate the involvement of teachers in the reform process, a group of local, national, and international organizations worked with 26 Galapagos schools to begin a participatory process for curriculum development in environmental education. The process involves teachers in a five-year program in which they use standardized tools to create, pilot, and evaluate lessons in their classrooms and contribute their results to the reform effort. The first phase of the process was completed in June 2003 and involved 42 teachers, 12 natural science professionals, and 12 education administrators in development workshops to define the process, standardize instruments, develop a model conceptual framework for introduced species education, and create protocols for monitoring and evaluation. After completing the first phase, 77% of the administrators involved felt that the process was practical to implement and 91% of the teachers felt that the process was the most appropriate way to develop the province's environmental education curriculum. The first phase of the process brought together leaders from both the conservation and education communities and has helped advance formal education as a priority for environmental conservation. Political influences and changes in institutional leadership have stalled the process. To advance the development of a provincial environmental education curriculum, teachers, administrators, and the conservation community will need to engage the new leadership of the Provincial Directorate of Education, Charles Darwin Research Station, and Galapagos National Park Service, rebuild relations between the teaching community and the provincial administrative body, and decentralize the control of Reform measures