Remote Instrumentation for Science Education

Abstract

This chapter will describe a laboratory of Internet accessible instrumentation that serves students participating in the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE). The equipment consists of commercially available scientific instruments not commonly available for teaching purposes in two and four year colleges. All are controlled by proprietary instrument manufacturer software which is also necessary for data reduction and analysis. Because the Center is a consortium of a large number and variety of schools, and because the students have little previous experience with advanced instrumentation, security has been a major design goal. The discussion will focus primarily on the types of security and data provenance issues encountered and the methods used to make the CASPiE laboratory a secure part of the educational cyberinfrastructure.