Bugscope: Members Page

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2008-09-12 11:00:00 from Lethbridge, AB, CA

10:30am
Bugscope Team we are setting up the microscope
Bugscope Team collecting the presets for today
10:35am
Bugscope Team cool setae pores

Bugscope Team yeah!

10:43am

10:49am

10:56am

Teacher ok
Bugscope Team Hi Mr B!
Teacher so we will start in about 15 minutes
Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
11:01am
Teacher thank you
Bugscope Team You have control if you would like to try things out before the kids show up.
Bugscope Team you can choose from among the presets on the right, and you can also strike out on your own using the controls on the upper right

Bugscope Team you can change the mag, drive by clicking on the screen after activating click to center, drive bym clicking to drive...
Bugscope Team if you click to drive it's good to remember to click to stop]
Teacher ok sounds great
Teacher what bug are we looking at
Bugscope Team this is a silverfish, part of the tarsus -- like the forearm

Teacher wow
Bugscope Team I changed the mag for you -- but we want you to control the 'scope, not us
11:06am
Bugscope Team if you have kids log in we can confer control to them as well, one at a time
Bugscope Team Mr B will the kids be able to log on?
Teacher no i will be asking the questions for them

Bugscope Team ok
Bugscope Team Okay will you be driving too?
Teacher i will
Bugscope Team Cool!]
Bugscope Team Let us know if you have any questions about driving, or anything...
Teacher ok
Teacher i am just waiting for the students

11:11am

Bugscope Team nice!
Bugscope Team these are predatory flies, when they're grown up, and predatory larvae at this stage as well
Bugscope Team strictly they are not flies but more closely related to antlions
Bugscope Team they have serious snapping jaws and disguise themselves with sand pebbles, sometimes, while they lie in wait for their prey
11:18am
Teacher hi they are here
Teacher they want to know what the pointy thing hanging out of it's nose it
Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope!
Teacher is
Bugscope Team it looks to be an antenna
Bugscope Team that is a seta, probably sensory
Bugscope Team we are looking at a claw
Bugscope Team ah, scott knows better than me, it's a seta
Bugscope Team the hooks are the claws
Bugscope Team if you take the mag down you can see much more of the owlfly larva
Teacher what kind of bug is it
Bugscope Team we are at 2412x now
Bugscope Team it is an owlfly larva
Bugscope Team setae (sea-tea) are hair like structures that most insects have. the setae stick through the exoskeleton of the insect, and attach to nerves. that's how they sense their environment
Bugscope Team an owlfly is a neuropteran; it is not really a fly
Bugscope Team owlflies are predatory -- they eat other insects
Bugscope Team can you see the controls on the upper right? at the top you can select minus to make the mag go down

Bugscope Team Owlflies get their common name because they have huge eyes and they hunt at night, just like owls.
Bugscope Team mr. B, if you get lost driving, just try clicking on another preset and it'll take you there automatically
Bugscope Team here you can use the focus button to bring the focus in
Bugscope Team yay!

11:23am
Bugscope Team this is a wild looking critter
Bugscope Team we are looking, now, at a silverfish
Teacher where are the eyes
Bugscope Team this is the ventral side -- the underside
Bugscope Team Silverfish are among the most primitive of insects
Bugscope Team so the eyes are hard to see, on the left and right but covered up mostly by setae
Teacher is it a dangerous bug?
Bugscope Team no they are more annoying I think
Bugscope Team silverfish have scales, unlike most insects

Bugscope Team butterflies, moths, skippers, and very few other insects have scales
Teacher the kids are taking turns driving the microscope
Bugscope Team cool!
Bugscope Team Silverfish can sometimes damage papers, but they cannot harm humans or pets. They are only dangerous if you are a book.
Bugscope Team hey Great!
Bugscope Team some of the presets have slipped a little since we set up
Teacher what is the hair looking stuff
Bugscope Team that is just what you think-- hair! except when they are found on insects, we are supposed to call them setae or seta for singular
Bugscope Team someone might want to take the mag down lower to get a better perspective
11:28am
Bugscope Team at first it is surprising to us how much 'hair' insects and other small arthropods have

Bugscope Team the hair -- 'setae' -- is used to gather information about the environment
Bugscope Team this is a haltere on the side of the thorax of a fruit flu
Bugscope Team fly
Bugscope Team the setae are connecting to the insect's nervous system and they allow the insect to detect sound, to smell, and to taste
Bugscope Team you can also see a spiracle
Bugscope Team Flies have only two wings, where almost all other insects have four wings.
Bugscope Team some setae are chemosensory, and of those some are 'tuned' to detect specific chemical scents and some are more general
Bugscope Team Flies are in the insect order "Diptera": which means "two-wing"
Bugscope Team and some setae are mechanosensory -- very much like whiskers on a cat or rat that help it feel its way in the dark

Bugscope Team this is the head of a small moth
Bugscope Team you can see the compound eye, which is composed of many individual facets called ommatidia
Teacher what are the things that look like feathers
Bugscope Team the individual facets function like individual lenses and send multiple images to the brain
Bugscope Team those are scales, like we saw on the silverfish
11:33am
Bugscope Team scales are what make butterfly wings feel silky, and they come off very easily
Bugscope Team scales help those insects escape from webs

Bugscope Team this is the head of a fruit fly
Bugscope Team you can see its antennae
Bugscope Team in two parts -- a sort of pad and a tree-like portion
Bugscope Team you can also see its compound eyes
Bugscope Team they call these aristate antennae
Bugscope Team a huge proportion of the brain is dedicated, in fruit flies, to processing visual signals
Teacher wow
Teacher can you see the mouth in this image
Bugscope Team The mouth is just "south" of the image, you can see part of the mouth here.
Bugscope Team This looks like a female to me, usually female flies have eyes that are far apart, whereas males have eyes that meet in the middle of their "foreheads"
Bugscope Team compound eyes have an advantage over our eyes in that they allow the insect to perceive motion much more quickly than we do
Bugscope Team the mouth is sort of turned down, and almost out of the image -- as Annie says
Bugscope Team you can use click to center to move where the microscope is imaging
Bugscope Team you guys are driving a $600,000 electron microscope
11:39am
Bugscope Team wherever the electron beam is directed we will get an image

Bugscope Team now you may want to click on Magnify, on the minus button, to see where we are
Bugscope Team because what we are seeing is 'live,' in real time, sometimes the sample will move from its original saved position

Bugscope Team all of the 'bugs' we are looking at in the microscope today are coated with nanometers of gold-palladium
Bugscope Team these are tenent setae -- they are the tiny bristly hairs that help an insect cling to a vertical surface or even a ceiling
Bugscope Team I will take the mag down a bit and show you where we are

Bugscope Team this is a scale, close up, from a Monarch butterfly
Bugscope Team the samples we are looking at are all inside the microscope and under vacuum
Bugscope Team that is, there is no air inside the chamber where the 'bugs' are

11:44am

Teacher why do the scales have holes in then
Bugscope Team it makes them light
Bugscope Team the holes and the patterns are in part responsible for the colors we see, and as Annie says they also make the structure very lightweight
Bugscope Team scales are kind of like feathers are to a bird
Bugscope Team when insects fly, the air feels thick to them, sort of like how water feels to us when we swim in it
Bugscope Team some of the holes in the scales will have tiny granules of pigment in them

Bugscope Team the scales can have both 'real' colors and structural colors
Teacher what kind of bug is this?
Bugscope Team this is one of the setae on the silverfish
Bugscope Team usually setae are not so detailed
Bugscope Team these are 'plumose' setae

Bugscope Team this is the center of the head of one of the owlfly larvae
Bugscope Team we set this up so you could take the mag down lower and see just where we are looking
11:49am
Bugscope Team like a surprise for you

Bugscope Team now you can see the jaws
Bugscope Team and you can imagine more easily that these are related to antlions
Bugscope Team there is another owlfly larvae to the left, I think
Bugscope Team and on that one you can see that its eyes are on little stalks
Teacher wow

Bugscope Team this is a mite
Bugscope Team and unusually, it is upside down
Teacher what part of the mite is it
Bugscope Team the mite is on the body of a very large millipede
Bugscope Team that is the whole mite
Bugscope Team it is built sort of like a hubcap
Bugscope Team if we take the mag down here we can see the relative size of the millipede and the mite

Teacher is this a piece of salt
Bugscope Team this is salt from a Wendy's restaurant
Bugscope Team millipedes are herbivore or decomposers, where centipedes are predators
Bugscope Team you can see that it has a cubic crystal structure
11:54am
Bugscope Team salt is like that, and sugar is not
Bugscope Team sugar does not form cubes
Bugscope Team unless of course it is molded into a cube
Student are we finished?
Bugscope Team Emily we just gave you control of the microscope
Student oh
Student i cant see any of the presets
Bugscope Team you may drive if you would like
Student this is still mrs b

Bugscope Team if you click F5 it will change the screen so that you can see all of it

Bugscope Team hey cool!
Bugscope Team this is the other owlfly larva
Bugscope Team see the eyes on little promontories?
Student do we see the mouth?
Bugscope Team they have very few facets compared to flying insects
Bugscope Team the mouth will be on the other side of the head
Bugscope Team and it is not obvious when we do see it
Bugscope Team the giant jaws are part of the mouth

Bugscope Team preset 10 shows the other side of the head
11:59am
Student what are we looking at now?
Bugscope Team now you can see what a few ommatidia look like, up close
Bugscope Team this is someone's eye...
Bugscope Team if you take the mag down maybe we can tell what kind of insect it is

Bugscope Team okay I know
Bugscope Team now
Bugscope Team ]this is one of the moths

Bugscope Team and this is another mite!
Bugscope Team this one seems to be clinging to a seta
Bugscope Team they are blind, and it might have just bumped into it

Bugscope Team this is cool too
Bugscope Team you can see where there were once lots of tiny scales
Student what is this
Bugscope Team and they have all fallen out
Bugscope Team this is the top of the head of the moth we were just looking at
Bugscope Team we can see just one part of one tiny scale
Bugscope Team mites may also be able to "smell" their host insect, so they can find them without actually seeing them. Insects often have remarkable chemical senses.
Bugscope Team the micron bar on the lower left of the screen shows 14, which is about 7 bacteria across
12:04pm
Bugscope Team if we had bacteria in the 'scope we would have no problem seeing them

Student oh really
Student wow this is so neat
Bugscope Team this is something we put on the stub for fun sometimes
Student the students are enjoying it
Bugscope Team it's the fluff from a milkweed pod
Student what is this?
Bugscope Team great!
Bugscope Team if I had mounted it correctly we would be seeing the empty holes rather than this side
Bugscope Team but it still looks cool
Bugscope Team the fluff is so fine that it is difficult to mount it and know the right side is up

Bugscope Team I took the mag down here so you could see more of it

Student wow this was so wonderful!

Student thank you guys so much
Student it is wonderful that you guys do this
Bugscope Team Sure!
Bugscope Team you are really welcome
Bugscope Team This is fun for us
Bugscope Team You can imagine that it is really fun for us.
Student yes

Student well i have to get ready for music

Student thanks again!!

Bugscope Team Thank you for the questions!
12:10pm
Bugscope Team Well Thank You!
Bugscope Team See you next time!

Student i will email you the story that the newspaper is doing on us
Student once i see it in the paper
Bugscope Team great!
Student i am signing off now
Bugscope Team we would appreciate it
Bugscope Team goodbye all!
Bugscope Team Bye!

Bugscope Team Over and out!

School Name	General Stewart
School Homepage	< LEFT BLANK >
Location	Lethbridge AB, CA
Community	Urban
Type	Public

Subjects Taught	science, social, health, p.e
Grades Taught	2nd Grade
Number of Students	18

Project Title	small crawling and flying animals
Insects To Study	ants, snails, spiders, bees
Project Description	I will use bugscope as an introduction to the small crawling and flying animals unit in grade two science. Our school is getting smart boards so I will use the smart board to display the information .

Session 2008-064 with General Stewart

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2008-09-12 11:00:00 from Lethbridge, AB, CA