Bugscope: Members Page

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2007-10-08 19:30:00 from , KS, US

7:28pm
Bugscope Team Oh no we lost Mrs Phelps
Bugscope Team Jon was a medic too.
Bugscope Team jon, what kind of asian arts?
Bugscope Team one that ends on a vowel
Bugscope Team hhmm, karate?
Bugscope Team nope
Bugscope Team KenPo
Bugscope Team jujitsu... wait, don't they ALL end in vowels?
Bugscope Team nope
Bugscope Team JuJitSu
Bugscope Team :)
Bugscope Team sumo wrestling?
Bugscope Team nope
Bugscope Team yeah Sumo ends in a vowel -- that's it. Better start eating.
Bugscope Team daruma
Bugscope Team nope
Bugscope Team momotaro
Bugscope Team means peach boy
Bugscope Team like Cate is an Otaku.
7:34pm
Bugscope Team Carol let us know what's going on over there. Should we give you control?
Bugscope Team Carol is on Firefox.
Bugscope Team Ahh Mrs Phelps is back! Phew!
Bugscope Team Mrs Phelps you can drive if you'd like.
Bugscope Team Hello!
Bugscope Team Welcome to bugscope!

Bugscope Team we can give control of the microscope to anyone who'd like to try it...

Bugscope Team and if you have any questions please just ask, we like questions.
Bugscope Team yeah you bet I was just driving to the fruit fly eye here -- the compound eye
Bugscope Team the microscope is an evironmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM)
Student What is this?
Student Eye of fly
Bugscope Team and you can try some of the presets to the lower right too
Student what is it
Bugscope Team this is a comopound eye of a fruit fly
Bugscope Team you can see a bunch of the setae that are normally positioned between the individual eye facets are busted off
Bugscope Team this is a fruit fly eye
7:39pm
Bugscope Team compound eye
Student what are the pointy things
Bugscope Team those are setae, they help the bug sense its environment
Bugscope Team many insect eyes have hairs inbetween the individual facets of the eye. insects can be very hairy.
Bugscope Team made up of lots of tiny facets called ommatidia
Bugscope Team the pointy things are setae (hairs) that are normally standing up between the ommatidia
Bugscope Team some kind of dirt
Bugscope Team some of the setae are broken off, and are laying around...
Bugscope Team Joel would you like to drive?
Student Yes
Bugscope Team you can change the magnification, move around in two different ways (drive or click to center), change the focus and adjust the brightness and contrast...
Bugscope Team You can try clicking on a preset, or changing the mag, or going somewhere else
Bugscope Team joel, you have control now.
Student How many objects does a fly see at once?
Bugscope Team you should now see controls you couldn't see before, Joel
Bugscope Team the fly sees multiple images of the same things, pretty much

Bugscope Team Hey the praying mantis
Student how long do they live
Bugscope Team notice the magnification at the top right, it is currently 111x. you can change that joel, as you wish.
Bugscope Team I think they last one short season

Bugscope Team the scope can magnify up to 600,000x, but for insects and bugs we most often see 50x - 30,000 times.
Student What are the spikes?
Bugscope Team this is a very small praying mantis

Bugscope Team the spikes are used to grab and hold onto its prey
Bugscope Team some of the spikes help is grab, d'oh!, as Cate said

Bugscope Team praying mantids get so big that they can eat small birds, reptiles and even some mammals

7:44pm

Bugscope Team closeup of the face

Bugscope Team but those would be too big to look at in the scope
Bugscope Team if anyone else wants control of the scope, just let us know. only one person can control at a time, and we have to switch it.
Bugscope Team the small pointy thing we saw was a palp
Bugscope Team one of the modified limbs that is a mouthpart
Bugscope Team Hi Chas!
Bugscope Team Hi guys

Bugscope Team notice here the arm on the left is in focus, but the background wasn't.... there is true depth of field.
Bugscope Team Joel is driving from Ulysses.

Bugscope Team coolness

Bugscope Team nice click to cneter joel
Bugscope Team this is the edge of a compound eye, and you can see the pollen grain we found on it
Student what are the ridges on the eye
Bugscope Team the ridges are probably due to the sample dehydrating, although frequently there is some texture on the ommatidia (or facets) of more advanced eyes
Bugscope Team this is kind of a cool view of the eye
Bugscope Team you can see that the eye is a little dry and shrunken
Bugscope Team if you want you can take the mag down lower, see where you are

Bugscope Team Cool!

Student What would the equivalent eye part be on the human eye?

Bugscope Team Well it's sort of like a whole bunch of human eyes
Bugscope Team notice the measuring tool on the bottom left of your image. you can grab that tool and take measurments of things in the image, if you like.
Bugscope Team each of those sections is like just one of our eyes
Bugscope Team they seem to have something like rods/cones, some of them, like moths
7:49pm
Bugscope Team some eyes are more complex, and some insects can see in the ultraviolet, which we cannot

Bugscope Team you can't resize the scale bar, but it does help give you a perspective for the size of the objects you're seeing. 60 µm (microns) is 60 millionths of a meter, or about the width of a human hair
Bugscope Team to the right you see silver paint, which Cate put on to minimize charging with these scales

Bugscope Team the silver paint also holds this piece of butterfly wing down

Bugscope Team I think it's a Monarch wing.
Bugscope Team yes thats right scott
Bugscope Team You can see, also, that the scales are much like feathers
Bugscope Team the scales are what make the wings feel so silky when you touch them
Bugscope Team they would come off in a spider web
Bugscope Team we lost joel, we need to give someone else control...
Bugscope Team who wants to drive?
Bugscope Team Bug now has control.
Bugscope Team i gave control to bug.
Bugscope Team Jan is here as well.
Bugscope Team hi jan, are you from the school board meeting as well? or are you from somewhere else?
Bugscope Team Jan would you like to drive?
7:55pm
Bugscope Team We can give you control if you would like
Bugscope Team jan, you've got control, you should see new control buttons on the right of your browser window
Guest I am a teacher in Ottawa Ks. A teacher told me about this site who is at the board meeting though. This is really cool, I'm fine with just watching, thank you though!
Bugscope Team bug is the only person left from the Ulysses students
Bugscope Team ah, okay.
Bugscope Team Where is Ottawa? Isn't that in the east?
Guest Eastern Kansas, 20 minutes south of Lawrence
Bugscope Team they are in kansas i think
Bugscope Team Yeah that's what I thought. I used to live in Lawrence.

Bugscope Team cool! way to change the mag!
Bugscope Team Be sure to click on a preset if you would like. Nothing to it
Guest I joined late and I'm not sure what I'm looking at
Bugscope Team this is a Monarch wing.
Bugscope Team scales on the wing
Bugscope Team You should see a bunch of presets on the right of this---->
Bugscope Team And if you click on one, you can...
Bugscope Team the microscope you are controlling is an ESEM (environmental scanning electron microscope)

Bugscope Team This is a fruit fly, head-on.

Bugscope Team nice, getting up close to its chompers...
Bugscope Team I went to KU, which is where I first got to run electron microscopes
8:00pm
Bugscope Team a long time ago
Guest I'm still bitter about Saturday's game I bleed purple!
Guest can I move it to see an eye?
Bugscope Team hey, our football team has been TERRIBLE for years, and now we are fianlly winning some games.
Bugscope Team You bet.
Bugscope Team you can use the click to center feature if you want
Guest how? Where do I go?
Bugscope Team try click to center, that's easier. if you are ambisious, try click to drive.
Bugscope Team you should see some controls on the right side of your browser
Bugscope Team Navigation
Bugscope Team up where it says navigation, click on click to center
Bugscope Team then some blueish buttons, "Click to Drive" and "Click to Center"

Bugscope Team do you see those buttons? if not, try hitting refresh (F5)
Bugscope Team my dad almost got disowned for going to KU rather than K State (purple for you guys here)
Bugscope Team you might have to expand your browser window to see all the controls
Guest I clicked the center button and nothing is happening
Bugscope Team ah, now, click anywhere in the image
Bugscope Team Hmmm.
Bugscope Team and it will take you to that spot

Bugscope Team Yeah cool.
Bugscope Team it will actually move the microscope based on your input
Bugscope Team there ya go!!!!
Guest ok, got it now, is this the eye?
Bugscope Team Now you can change the mag if you want.
Bugscope Team This is the left eye.
Bugscope Team oops I mean right eye

Bugscope Team yep, this is a compound eye, with a bunch of hairs (setae) sticking out of it

Bugscope Team gnarly

8:05pm
Bugscope Team this is another eye, at the edge
Guest this is so cool, my mom is one of the teachers who presented at the board meeting in ulysses
Bugscope Team very nice, this is another insect eye, with a small piece of pollen on it

Bugscope Team really...
Bugscope Team glad you like it!
Bugscope Team My family is mostly from western kansas
Guest What are the hexagon shaped things?
Bugscope Team those are the individual eye facets. called ommatidia
Bugscope Team they are a little wrinkled from being dry
Bugscope Team the eye of an insect is very interesting, lots of individual facets to it.
Bugscope Team each ommatidia sees a seperate image
Bugscope Team if you want you can take the mag down and see what the resf of the head looks like

Bugscope Team now you can click to center again if you want
Guest no, I came back just to see this, she thought is was pretty cool, she was right

Bugscope Team well, i mean, do you go to school, high school, college?
Bugscope Team we are a little concerned that we lost them
Bugscope Team if you'd like to do a bugscope session with your school, we accept just about everyone who wants to do a session...
Bugscope Team it may have been a short part of the meeting
Guest duh, sorry! no, I am an elementary teacher, this is my 3rd year

Bugscope Team well we would accept you for sure if you want
Bugscope Team this is K through 12.
8:11pm
Guest I teach 1st grade, do you get many primary grades? It seems like it is a bit advanced for them
Bugscope Team if you are interested, just email bugscope@itg.uiuc.edu.
Bugscope Team the kids would probably have to have someone else drive, and maybe someone else forward their questions
Guest It is definitely something I am going to let the intermediate grades know about
Bugscope Team but I think it would be fun
Bugscope Team i think we like doing sessions for younger kids too
Guest I think my kids would think it was cool, but I don't know if they would get it
Bugscope Team my grandmother Robinson taught 1st grade in Lakin
Bugscope Team younger kids can be very impressionable, and even though they might not understand everything, they might gain some interest in science they wouldn't have otherwise...
Bugscope Team we are all for helping kids to learn about science, even if it is just a "whoa, that is so cool!"
Guest maybe if we had the same bug here so they could compare, it is definitely worth looking into, especially if they are insects they have heard of before
Bugscope Team we also let you send us bugs in the mail. some teachers have taken kids outside, found some bugs, send them to us, and those are the bugs the kids look at.
Bugscope Team yeah we would be glad to do it Jan, even if it was a short session
Guest I think that is what they did in ulysses isn't it? Sent the bugs to you?
Bugscope Team yes they sent them to us for their session earlier
Bugscope Team this evening we used another set of critters
Bugscope Team they don't last long, and we don't like to use them over again anyway
Guest What am I looking at now?
Bugscope Team a lady bug head
8:16pm
Guest the top of the head of the ladybug?
Bugscope Team this is what looks like, to us, a tiny ladybug
Bugscope Team yep!
Bugscope Team yes it
Bugscope Team is, from the underside

Guest okay! Is that the mouth?

Bugscope Team insects arent very interesting to look at from their back
Bugscope Team when we set a session up we try to put what you want to see as presets -- yes this is the mouthy
Bugscope Team mouth
Bugscope Team I type so slowly
Bugscope Team we try to find cool kind of yucky stuff for the kids to see

Bugscope Team like a big claw
Guest This is the type os thing my kids could relate too b/c they have all had a june bug stick to them
Bugscope Team you can tell from looking at this claw that this june bug could not climb a wall very well, or hang on the ceiling
Guest this is why they stick to you right?
Bugscope Team now you can see why the stick
Bugscope Team they stick
Bugscope Team but it could easily grab your clothes or cling to your hand
8:21pm
Bugscope Team in fact, some june bug claws might still have human skin in them that we could see in the microscope. scott ever think you've seen that?
Bugscope Team you could compare this claw to one from a fly, which has a pad called a pulvillus on it with tiny sticky setae on it
Bugscope Team flies are pretty cool -- house flies -- to look at
Guest oh yeah, I bet.
Bugscope Team don't forget airwigs
Bugscope Team earwigs*
Bugscope Team sometimes we put salt crystals, or sugar, in as well.
Guest How long have you guys been doing this?
Bugscope Team almost 9 years
Bugscope Team i am just starting

Bugscope Team we started in March of 1999
Bugscope Team so 8+ years I guess
Bugscope Team this is the second version of the software though. chas built this web interface.
Bugscope Team the software is much improved
Bugscope Team this version is much better for users and for us too....
Bugscope Team yeah the interface is aqesome
Bugscope Team awesome
Guest It is just amazing that this is possible

8:26pm
Guest is this the cricket head?
Bugscope Team Jan this is the most fun thing we do, usually, in a week
Bugscope Team this is the abdomen of the june bug I think

Bugscope Team yeah, at other times i'm dealing with mail servers and blechk, stuff like that....
Bugscope Team you can get to the cricket head by clicking ont he preset
Bugscope Team you can scroll to preset 2
Bugscope Team on the right there

Bugscope Team this is a particularly good microscope

Bugscope Team it has better resolution than most scanning electron microscopes
Guest What does that warning mean?
Bugscope Team so we are very lucky
Bugscope Team umm we don't see it on our screens

Bugscope Team what warning?

Bugscope Team did it tell you to wait until one command was done before moving again?
Guest itsays you are proabably at the max or min of that control
Bugscope Team we get that sometimes, and it only shows up on the controller's screen
Bugscope Team oh the mag can't go any ower
Bugscope Team lower
Bugscope Team yeah that means we cannot go to a lower mag -- it means this is a big bug
Bugscope Team ah, yes, since you are controlling the scope, there are certain limits we impose so the scope doesn't get damaged or out of wack, and you are just seeing those limits.
Bugscope Team np problem
Bugscope Team no problem
Bugscope Team no big deal though...
Guest Do you guys have anything from a millipede? That is our class pet and the kids would like that
Guest or is that too big
Bugscope Team ooh one of those with long legs or short legs?
Bugscope Team a millipede is the class pet? what happened to hamsters and rabbits lol
8:31pm
Bugscope Team umm they might not be happy to see a dead one in the 'scope
Guest short legs
Bugscope Team i guess millipedes arent as expensive
Guest lol
Guest I think if they knew it wasn't ours they would be okay
Bugscope Team the stub is only 1.75 inches across
Bugscope Team okay we can do it
Bugscope Team the cousin of yours
Bugscope Team the stub is what we put the bugs on into the microscope, so the bug can't be bigger than that.
Bugscope Team how long is it?

Guest My mom got it at a science fair last year. I had 2 I wish I would have known about this b/c one died
Guest about 4 inches long right now

Bugscope Team wow that sounds like a centipede
Guest could you put a piece of one on there

Guest It isn't a centipede, we wouldn't have that as a class pet
Bugscope Team yeah we could; just have to get the right one
Bugscope Team yeah that would be scary
Bugscope Team send us a photo of it?
Guest who am I telling you that you are wrong lol
Bugscope Team :)
Bugscope Team we're not entomologists. and Annie is not on this evening'
Bugscope Team scott does know a lot about insects though...
Guest Sure, I'll prep Bear for his/her photo shoot (the kids named it)
Bugscope Team we know a little bit about insects/arthropods after doing this for a while
Bugscope Team COOL.
8:37pm
Guest this is the abdomen of a ....?
Bugscope Team we can probably get one from CBS (Carolina Biological Supply)
Bugscope Team this, now, it is hard to tell, is the narrow part of the haltere of a fruit fly

Guest oh wow, that alot of hair
Bugscope Team the haltere is the little thing like a speedbag for a boxer that balances the motion of the wing

Bugscope Team now you can start to see it, to the south there
Bugscope Team yeah, many insects are a lot hairy than most people think

Bugscope Team insects are a lot hairier than they often seem
Bugscope Team lots and lots of tiny setae, which is what we are supposed to call hair
Guest where is this on the fly?

Bugscope Team some of the setae are mechanosensory and some are chemosensory
Bugscope Team near the wing
Bugscope Team keep zooming out, you'll see

Bugscope Team it is adjacent to one of the wings -- there is one on each side
Guest Is there one on both sides
Bugscope Team yeppers
Guest ha, can't type fast enough

Bugscope Team it moves opposite the way the wing does and functions like a gyroscope, like a stabilizer for two-winged insect
Bugscope Team s
Bugscope Team what is cool about wings is that two wings are more efficient, generally, than four

Bugscope Team so a wasp, for example, has four wings but hooks the fore and hindwings together when it flies

8:42pm

Bugscope Team it has tiny hooks called hamuli on the edges of two of its wings

Bugscope Team the abdomen is shrunken
Bugscope Team dried up
Guest this is proabably a stupid question but what is that string like thing on the bottom of the legs
Bugscope Team no doubt, what is that string?
Bugscope Team it's likely dust
Bugscope Team you could go look
Bugscope Team a small strand of some kind of fiber

Bugscope Team sometimes we see web, from spiders
Bugscope Team and sometimes fungal hyphae

Bugscope Team sometimes even human hair
Guest do you ever look at mold or anything undr here
Bugscope Team we can't help but do it sometimes
Bugscope Team we can see bacteria when they are on a sample

Guest I think human hair would be cool
Bugscope Team sometimes we see mold spores
Bugscope Team you could compare curly hair and straight hair, for example

Bugscope Team we could try to find the mites that are supposed to live on eyelashes
Guest gosh, those look sharp
8:47pm
Bugscope Team you know Jan if you image earwigs, they often have mites on them
Bugscope Team yeah these are intended to hold prey
Guest I'm showing my ignorance here but what is an earwig? I've heard of it but apparently don't know what it is
Bugscope Team the seta on the right lets the mantis know if it is holding something

Bugscope Team earwigs are those beetle-like things that have pincer tails
Bugscope Team they live near tomato plants, among other things
Guest oh

Bugscope Team check out the wikipedia page on earwigs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwig
Bugscope Team and they come inside the house sometimes
Bugscope Team they are called dermaptera

Bugscope Team the tails are called cercopods
Bugscope Team heh, earwig can also be used as a verb meaning: to attempt to influence by persistent confidential argument or talk
Bugscope Team yeah i am not a fan of finding them

Bugscope Team if you try to pick them up they whip their pincers around fast
Bugscope Team you could use them as temporary earrings
Bugscope Team hah
Guest : )
Bugscope Team very cool fashion statement
Bugscope Team Alex that is like when someone says put a bug in your ear
Guest Are you all in the same room? this can't be your normal "hours"
Bugscope Team i am at home
Bugscope Team at home for me too
Bugscope Team i'm sitting next to the microscope... freezing...
8:52pm
Bugscope Team Cate is home, Alex is by the 'scope, I am in my office not far from the 'scope, Jon is not far from the TV
Bugscope Team jon is watching heros...
Bugscope Team it'sold down here; the 'scope is 23 feet underground
Bugscope Team cold
Bugscope Team down here

Bugscope Team wishes he was watching the yankees lose....
Guest I missed prison break to come see this
Bugscope Team Jan now you know this is easy to do -- you can run a session from Ottawa
Bugscope Team looks like you need a tivo too
Bugscope Team that is good of you, Jan. we are glad
Guest yes, this is cool. Maybe we will go bug hunting soon
Bugscope Team is prison break good?
Guest it is getting cold though
Bugscope Team before it gets too cold outside
Guest Yeah, it is good but you have to catch all the episodes or you'll be lost
Bugscope Team the cold is coming our way isn't it?
Guest probably, it has been hot here so we are welcoming the middle 70s
Bugscope Team you are like a day ahead of us with the weather
8:57pm
Guest Well I better go. This was cool, if I schedule a session will it be you guys who do it?
Bugscope Team it was a pleasure having you jan.
Bugscope Team hope to see an application from ya
Bugscope Team yes it will be us for sure and we will be glad to see you
Bugscope Team yes, we do it. some dudes and dudettes
Bugscope Team you know how to find us
Bugscope Team plus annie, who is very nice too
Bugscope Team and tell your mom she set you up
Bugscope Team yeah Annie keeps us from telling kids that lobsters are just large bugs
Guest sounds like you have a pretty cool jobs, this will definitely get my kids interested in science
Bugscope Team good deal
Bugscope Team we like what we do, and this is a total kick
Bugscope Team sometimes we have 20 kids typing questions all at once
Guest See you later! Thank you!
Bugscope Team bye
Bugscope Team Thank You!
Bugscope Team bye!
9:02pm
Bugscope Team all right see ya guys tomorrow
Bugscope Team good night all

School Name	USD 214 Ulysses
School Homepage	www.ulysses.org
Location
Community	Rural
Type	Public

Subjects Taught	USD 214 School Board
Grades Taught	5th Grade, Other
Number of Students	20

Project Title	USD 214 Ulysses School Board
Insects To Study	variety
Project Description	The fifth grade students at Sullivan Elementary, Mrs. Shelley Phelps , and Ms. Susan Alexander are going to demonstrate to the USD 214 School Board the Bugscope. The school board members will get a chance to participate in a Bugscope session and see how technology is being integrated into the classroom.

Session 2007-060 with USD 214 Ulysses

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2007-10-08 19:30:00 from , KS, US