Connected on 2008-04-11 11:30:00 from Jenks, OK, US
- 10:39am
- Bugscope Team doing presets now
- 10:44am
- 10:50am
- 10:56am
- Bugscope Team presets done, we are ready to go
- Bugscope Team ready fredy
- 11:04am
- Bugscope Team hello
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team hello mrs. giddens, welcome to bugscope
- Teacher Hello Alex
- Bugscope Team well hello there! any questions?
- Bugscope Team we are ready for you and your class anytime
- Teacher No, thank you. Just getting prepared.
- Bugscope Team ok, do you prefer suzanne, or mrs. giddens?
- Teacher Mrs. Giddens , please.
- Bugscope Team you got it, mrs. giddens, no problem
- Teacher I will also have a couple students asking questions
- Teacher i'll bbl.
- Bugscope Team you are welcome to start controlling the scope anytime, okay see you soon then
- 11:20am
- Teacher We are back online
- Bugscope Team ok, sounds good, you want to practice driving the scope a bit?
- Teacher Students will be writing questions on index cards and giving them to me to type.
- Teacher I"m good with practice driving.
- Bugscope Team that is fine by us, whatever works for you
- Teacher Will we be starting with a ladybug?
- Bugscope Team well, you can start with any bug you want that is on the preset list
- Bugscope Team we've got presets for you and your class today
- Bugscope Team 10 presets i mean
- Bugscope Team that just happens to be at the top of the preset list (ladybug I mean)
- Teacher What are we looking at now?
- Bugscope Team this is preset #7, it's a fruit fly head
- 11:25am
- Teacher We would like to start with teh fruit fly head.
- Bugscope Team two big compound eyes on the sides, and the mouth in the middle
- Bugscope Team in the lower middle part of the face is the sponging mouth part
- Bugscope Team mrs. giddens, do you want us to control the scope, move around, and such? or do you want to control the scope yourself?
- Teacher I will
- Bugscope Team the antennae are at the top-middle part of the head. The antennae have two parts, the two darker hairy parts and the branches that you see on top of the eyes
- Bugscope Team ok, sounds good
- Teacher 11:30 is starting time, please hold.
- Bugscope Team ok
- 11:30am
- Teacher Hello Alex & Cate
- Teacher 7th grade Jenks Middle School students are ready to begin
- Bugscope Team hello mrs. giddens and students of jenks middle school, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Team this is the head of a fruit fly
- Bugscope Team check out the two compound eyes on either side of the head
- Bugscope Team fruit flies also have ocelli (simple eyes with a single lens) but we can't see them on this particular insects from this angle
- Teacher Here's a question from Onan: Can you get a colored picture on an electron microscope?
Bugscope Team good question, the answer is no. in an electron microscope, electrons are used to "gather" the image, and since electrons are smaller than the wavelength of visible light, we don't see color, only shades of black/white.
Bugscope Team What we see as color is how the surface of something selectively reflects or absorbs certain wavelengths, colors, of light. The electron microscope uses a method of image formation totally different than reflecting or passing light through something (bombarding the sample with a stream of tiny charged particles), so there is no color information like we see with our eyes
- 11:36am
- Bugscope Team however, sometimes people can false color an electron image, based on elemental analysis so that the colors do signify some scientific differences on the insect
- Teacher Question from Will: How big is an electron microscope?
- Bugscope Team as you can see, insects are very "hairy"
- Bugscope Team it is the size of a desk
- Bugscope Team there is a picture of the scope you are using here: http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/ms/equipment/microscopes/esem/
- Teacher Question from Megan: What is all the hair for?
Bugscope Team the hairs on an insect are called setae (see-tee), and they allow the insect to sense their environment through their hard exoskeleton.
Bugscope Team Insects and other arthropods have an exoskeleton: a skeleton that is on the OUTSIDE of their muscles and organs. The setae are connected to nerves that are then connected to the insect's brain. The hairs collect information about the environment, allowing the insect to feel, taste, and smell.
- Bugscope Team but the chamber of the scope, the place we put your bugs, is about the size of a human head
- Bugscope Team yes, the setae are attached to nerves underneath the exoskeleton
- Teacher Are we looking at hairs or spikes on the pillbug claw?
- Bugscope Team these are still hairs, or setae rather
- Teacher Question from TJ: Are pillbugs related to crabs and lobsters?
Bugscope Team Yes! They are all crustaceans.
Bugscope Team At least some of these setae have a sensory functions. Some of the larger spikes/ setae may help the pillbug to walk
- Bugscope Team a lobster is like a very big bug
- Bugscope Team annie is an entomologist so she knows her stuff!
- 11:41am
- Teacher Question from Kyle: How poisionous is a stinger of a scorpion?
Bugscope Team Most scorpions inflict a painful sting, but generally they do not kill healthy humans. Some scorpion stings only hurt as bad as a wasp sting; other scorpion stings are so painful that a person may have to seek medical attention, or stay in bed all day.
- Bugscope Team that hole that you see in the tip of the stinger is a gland for injecting part of the venom. There are supposed to be 2 glands, but we don't see the other one
Bugscope Team I think it might be on the other side.
- Teacher Question from Soccerman (Jacob).: How long are scropion stingers usually?
Bugscope Team well, they are in length, depending on the species. but you could measure this one yourself. notice the measure tool in the lower right of the image. you could use that to measure the stinger!
- Bugscope Team the rock looking things is probably some dirt on the house fly
- Bugscope Team i mean to say millimeters in length
- Bugscope Team um is a micron, one millionth of a meter
- 11:46am
- Bugscope Team so if you zoom out here a bit, then you'll see the entire stinger
- Bugscope Team then you can get a good measure of its length
- Bugscope Team if you drive to the left you should be able to see the end
- Bugscope Team nice driving mrs. giddens!
- Teacher Question from TJ (milkman): What is the deadliest scorpion and where does it live?
Bugscope Team the deadliest scorpion is the bark scorpion (AKA deadly sculptured scorpion). they live in the Southwest
- Teacher Thank you, Alex.
- Teacher Question from Will's mom: How quickly do house flies reproduce?
Bugscope Team the adult hatched house fly's live anywhere from 1/2 month to a month, in the wild. in lab conditions they can live longer.
- Teacher Question from Megan: Do flies have ears? If so , where are they?
Bugscope Team Flies sense sound with setae on their antennae. The can also sense vibrations with mechanosensory setae on other parts of their bodies (legs, thorax, etc).
- Teacher Question from Liam: Do you watch the Discovery Channel?
Bugscope Team i LOVE the discovery channel
- Bugscope Team I liked watching Planet Earth
- Bugscope Team There is another scorpion genus in North Africa and the Middle East, Androctonus, that is also very venomous
- Teacher Question from: Tucker. What are the bubbly things on the house fly compound eye?
Bugscope Team those are called ommatidia. a house fly compound eye is made up of hundreds of these ommatidia, or individual facets, each one having its own lens in it. so the insect actually sees hundreds of images at once, and the brain puts it together into one picture
- 11:52am
- Teacher Question from Rita: How long do fruit flies live?
Bugscope Team I believe the genration time for lab reared Drosophila is about 2 weeks.
- Teacher Question from a typical middle school boy: How often do flies poop?
Bugscope Team It depends on how much they eat. The more eating, the more pooping.
- Bugscope Team this is part of a milkweed seed
- Bugscope Team milkweed is poisonous to a lot of animals
- Bugscope Team but monarch butterflies eat from them
- Teacher What do flies eat?
Bugscope Team Different types of flies eat differen things. Flies make up one of the largest insect orders. Some flies eat fruit, some eat dead animals and animal waste, some flies suck blood, some flies feed on nectar from flowers, some eat bacteria in saline lakes. If you can name it, there is probably a fly somewhere that eats it.
- Teacher Last question from Kyle: How many times a year do you hold sessions for schools?
Bugscope Team we do anywhere from 2-3 session a week during the school semester. we enjoy working with students and teachers!
- 11:57am
- Teacher Mrs. Giddens' 7th grade class from Jenks Middle School says THANK YOU!
- Bugscope Team Thank you all for the very good questions!
- Bugscope Team flies also rely heavily on their sight, using their compound eyes, that is why flies can avoid swatters somewhat...
- Teacher See you soon!
- Bugscope Team thank you everyone for your questions! We like to be challenged
- Teacher Great Session.
- Bugscope Team thanks jenks middle school, you all rocked!!!! thanks mrs. giddens!!!
- Teacher Bye Bye
- Bugscope Team all the images and chat are saved on your member page
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-002
- Bugscope Team ciao
- Bugscope Team bye and we hope you have another session with us again soon
- Bugscope Team ok see you annie
- 12:02pm
- Bugscope Team rxl stopped, session disabled and locked, all logged out.
- Bugscope Team nice session everyone, good bye!
