Connected on 2008-10-02 09:00:00 from , NC, US
- 7:48am
- Bugscope Team session enabled and unlocked, rxl started
- 7:59am
- Bugscope Team hello joyce! welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team we are still setting up, session in 1 hour, right?
- Teacher Hi all! Yes, we are still on for the lesson today. Just checking to make sure all is working. See you in an hour.
- Bugscope Team we are starting to make presets now, when we are done (about 20-30 minutes) you can practice driving the scope if you want to
- Bugscope Team Hi Joyce!
- 8:08am
- 8:14am
- 8:22am
- 8:28am
- 8:33am
- Bugscope Team presets are done, we are ready!
- 8:42am
- 8:47am
- 8:53am
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team Hi Joyce!
- Bugscope Team hi joyce!
- Bugscope Team this is cool, right here, where the caterpillar uses Velcro (TM) to connect to a branch
- 9:03am
- Teacher Hello Scot and Alex! We are ready to go!
- Bugscope Team awesome, you shoudl see controls on the right side
- Bugscope Team Let us know if you have any questions or any trouble driving.
- Bugscope Team at anytime you can click on a preset to move to that location
- Bugscope Team these are the bugs that you sent us
- Bugscope Team these are the scales on a monarch butterfly wing
- Teacher Logan says that these scales look like teeth!
- Bugscope Team hey, they do!
- 9:08am
- Bugscope Team like molars
- Bugscope Team if you had that many teeth, you could eat ANYTHING!
- Bugscope Team if the butterfly gets caught in a web, it can shed some of its scales to get free
- Teacher Devin asks, "How long did it take you to make the scanning electron microscope?"
- Bugscope Team well, scott or cate should answer that better than me, but we didn't make it, we bought it from a company
- Teacher Susi asks, " Why do bugs eat other bugs?"
Bugscope Team well susi, they only eat them so that they can survive, either by nourishment or some other reason like that
- Bugscope Team it cost a LOT of money
- Bugscope Team The microscope cost $600,000 about 9 years ago, so they are much more expensive now
- Teacher Sean asks, "How many caterpillars have you seen through the microscope?"
Bugscope Team hundreds! probably...
- Bugscope Team It was funded through a grant that was geared towards Bugscope
- 9:14am
- Bugscope Team this is a cool image, this is a spiracle, this is how insects breath. instead of a mouth they have holes on the sides of their bodies
- Teacher Dorothy asks, "Is there a bug in the whole wide world with wings but can't fly?"
Bugscope Team there are quite a few actually. Lots of beetles of wings but don't use them.
- Bugscope Team there are lots of animals that have wings that don't fly as well. strange huh?
- Teacher Gabe is our first driver.
- Bugscope Team like an ostrich or an emu
- Bugscope Team chickens
- Bugscope Team yay gabe!
- Bugscope Team Cool! Go Gabe.
- Bugscope Team the flea!
- Bugscope Team penguins also don't fly but have wings
- Bugscope Team you can see the eye; this is the tip of the head
- Bugscope Team Hello all!
- Bugscope Team A flea!
- Bugscope Team Hi Annie!
- Bugscope Team A flea that was once on me!
- Bugscope Team yeah this flea is courtesy of Annie
- Bugscope Team she was living in the wild this summer
- Teacher Shanna asks,"Why are there hairs on the back of it?"
Bugscope Team those hairs are called setae (sea-tea) and they are like cat whiskers, they help the bugs to sense their environment
- Bugscope Team Annie is our entomologist
- 9:19am
- Teacher Gabe asks, "Where do you put the bugs when you are done with them?"
Bugscope Team after we are done with a session, we usually throw them out. Sometimes we will keep a sample or two to show other people
- Bugscope Team Yes, the wilds of Los Angeles CA
- Teacher Parker asks,"Do you use the SEM daily?"
Bugscope Team We have around 3 bugscope sessions a week. When we aren't using it, other students at the university use it for their research
- Bugscope Team the bugs are all coated with gold-palladium but it is so thin that it is not worth keeping
- Bugscope Team this is pretty cool -- the mosquito eye
- Bugscope Team yeah so the microscope gets used every day, even on weekends
- Bugscope Team the facets of the compound eye are called ommatidia
- Teacher Brian is our driver now!
- Bugscope Team go brian!
- Bugscope Team brian, you are controlling a $600,000 microscope!
- Bugscope Team the eye facets -- the ommatidia -- are a little shrunken. they are more puffed up when the skeeter is still alive
- Bugscope Team see how the whole head is covered with ommatidia?
- Bugscope Team almost everywhere except the mouthparts and the bases of the antennae
- Teacher Emily asks, "What kinds of bugs do you like?"
Bugscope Team i like roly poly's
- 9:24am
- Bugscope Team I like earwigs.
- Teacher Mrs. Wratten asks, "What part do mosquitoes bite us with?"
- Bugscope Team we like bugs that have special features on them, or things living on them like scott said
- Bugscope Team And some things that aren't really insects, like ticks
- Bugscope Team you can see the biting parts on this mosquito
- Bugscope Team there is a long sheath covered with scales, and inside it is a stylet, which is very sharp
- Bugscope Team you can find that to the left of here i think
- Teacher Sarah asks, "Why do mosquitoes drink blood?"
Bugscope Team only the female mosquitos drink blood, and it's not like they have to do it for survival (they can get food from nectar and such) but something in the blood helps to increase production of their eggs, so it helps them to reproduce
- Bugscope Team the sheath/proboscis has a slit in it
- Bugscope Team only the female mosquitoes drink blood, and it is because they need to have energy in order to successfully lay their eggs
- Teacher Kaleb is now driving!
- Bugscope Team Cool -- Kaleb!
- Teacher It reminds us of spaghetti!
- Bugscope Team this is a bunch of silk the caterpillar wrapped around the little branch so it could hang its chrysalis from it
- Bugscope Team so the caterpillar made its own web
- Bugscope Team insects other than spiders sometimes make web
- Teacher Parker asks, "How do you use your SEM in your work office?"
- Bugscope Team it is cool to see this today because we can tell how the process works
- 9:30am
- Bugscope Team the SEM is right near our offices, and our job is to help people use it and a number of other microscopes
- Bugscope Team kaleb, go ahead and click again to stop moving
- Bugscope Team good job kaleb!
- Bugscope Team people use the SEM, and the TEM (transmission electron microscope), and other microscopes to do their research
- Bugscope Team this lab has about 20 microscopes, and many of them have their own rooms
- Teacher Paige asks, "How much do you know about bugs?"
- Bugscope Team we learn more about bugs every day
- Bugscope Team it used to be annie was the only one that knew about bugs. But after doing so many bugscope sessions, we learn more and more about bugs ourselves
- Bugscope Team it is amazing the things we don't know, but we are very interested
- Bugscope Team i know the least about bugs, scott and cate know much more than me. but it's really cool doing bugscope, i've learned so much
- Teacher Anna wants to know what this is...
Bugscope Team this is a little twig that had the monarch chrysalis attached to it
- Bugscope Team we have a friendly competition to try and answer questions better and more completely
- Teacher Martin is coming to drive now.
- Bugscope Team ha the beetle
- Bugscope Team this guy has some busy mouthparts
- Bugscope Team you can see his antennae, and his eyes, as well
- Bugscope Team now his legs, and the abdomen
- Bugscope Team martin, gonna drive like an aston-martin!
- Bugscope Team see how his wings are folded up?
- 9:35am
- Bugscope Team his wings are folded under a shell called the elytra
- Bugscope Team like a ladybug's
- Bugscope Team this might be some sort of seed beetle. they resemble ladybugs
- Teacher Ashley asks,"What is the smallest insect in the world?"
Bugscope Team that would be a fairyfly i think
- Bugscope Team this is milkweed floss that Cate collected
- Bugscope Team they are tiny wasps
- Bugscope Team so we could see what Monarchs like to eat
- Bugscope Team yes, i think cate is right, it's the fairyfly, which are insects that parasitize other insects' eggs by laying their eggs inside them. eeewwww!
- Bugscope Team there are many tiny wasps, and many of them are parasitic
- Bugscope Team milkweed is often poisonous to other insects and animals. So since the monarch eats it, the butterfly itself is poisonous
- Bugscope Team spiders are said to know that Monarchs are not good to eat
- Teacher Kamryn has bee driving around the seed!
- Bugscope Team spiders are not insects, by the way, they are arachnids. key difference between insects and spiders is that all insects have six legs, and all spiders have eight
- Bugscope Team good job kamryn
- 9:40am
- Teacher Brian asks, "Where do owl moths come from?"
- Teacher Dorothy asks, "What bugs besides Monarchs migrate to Mexico?"
- Teacher This is another Ashley driving!
- Bugscope Team so there are different types of owl moths where you live!
- Teacher Heather want to know, "Is there a bug that never eats?"
- Bugscope Team monarch btterflies are the most famous ones, but other types of migrating insects are locusts, beetles, and dragonflies
- Bugscope Team some adult insects do not eat
- Teacher Heeeere comes Susi the lady driver!
- Bugscope Team go susi!
- Bugscope Team there are some adult insects that do not have mouths
- 9:45am
- Bugscope Team like fugus gnats
- Bugscope Team fungus gnats
- Teacher Jeremy asks, "How do ladybugs lay their eggs?"
Bugscope Team Female ladybugs lay tiny eggs, usually laid in a small mass on leaves
- Bugscope Team the flea!
- Teacher Sarah is the next driver!
- Bugscope Team Go Sarah!
- Teacher Mrs. Peele wants to know where butterflies get their colors?
- Bugscope Team some of the colors we see in butterflies are from pigments that can be found in the scales
- 9:50am
- Bugscope Team structural colors come from the shape and pattern of the scales and the way those shapes/patterns reflect light
- Teacher Dorothy asks what "structural colors" are...
Bugscope Team structural colors happen when light it interfered with in some way, whereas as other colors happen via pigment.
- Teacher Susi asks, "How many of the bugs have you collected all together?"
- Bugscope Team it's like when you look at the grooves on a record, which is black (usually), but you see other colors reflected
- Bugscope Team here is a different kind of spiracle that is on the caterpillar
- Bugscope Team we bring bugs to the lab every week in the summer
- Bugscope Team we have to save them up for the winter months
- Bugscope Team the caterpillar has a soft body, and when it dries it shrivels up
- Teacher Devin is driving.
- Bugscope Team compared to the adult insects we have seen that have stiff chitin, or cuticle, that forms the exoskeleton
- Teacher What part of the caterpillar is this? Some are saying head and some are saying the eyes.
- 9:56am
- Bugscope Team it is the head and the eyes, I think, here
- Bugscope Team here you see a couple of simple eyes on the head
- Teacher Kamryn asks, "How do you catch the bugs?"
Bugscope Team well, sometimes we find bugs in our homes, and catch them with a glass and paper, then put them in a small jar and bring them to work
- Teacher Devin wants to know what is on the screen right now.
- Bugscope Team You guys I am sorry I have to go but you are in good hands. Thank you for the great questions and good driving!
- Bugscope Team we usually just dead insects we see around our work. Sometimes i will pick up insects i see that are dead in my parking garage
- Teacher Logan is making his way to the steering wheel...
- Bugscope Team go logan! logan's run!
- Teacher Bye Scot!
- Bugscope Team i'm not sure what this is, cate?
- Bugscope Team I think this might just be some juju
- Bugscope Team yeah, you guys are doing a great job of controlling the scope, and your questions are way better than what we usually get
- Bugscope Team the preset shifted here
- Bugscope Team this is the leg of the monarch
- Bugscope Team there are some special setae on it for tasting
- Bugscope Team try adjusting the brightness up a bit
- Teacher Logan tried the Monarch taste bud, but it was too dark on our Smart Board. Now he has chosen the beetle head.
Bugscope Team no problemo, if it's dark, you can use 'adjust' to increase the brightness
- 10:01am
- Bugscope Team there ya go!
- Bugscope Team nice job logan
- Teacher Logan says that the beetle head kind of looks like a golf ball on its eyes.
Bugscope Team totally! those golf balls are his 'compound eyes'
- Bugscope Team this beetle is giving us a good stare, he must be upset at us for putting him in the scope
- Bugscope Team the reason it looks like a golf ball is because they both use hexagons for the facets. Hexagons are the best shape to make round objects
- Teacher Martin wants to know," Why do some butterflies don't go to Mexico?"
Bugscope Team The monarch buttefly has the longest life span among butterflies-- 12 months. Other butterflies have too short a lifespan that they don't need to migrate
- Teacher Emily asks,
- Bugscope Team there are so many different kinds of butterfly
- 10:06am
- Teacher Emily asks, "How do ladybugs eat?"
Bugscope Team they grab what they are about to eat (aphids or other small insects) and they use their powerful jaws to start munching away!
- Teacher Anna is curious about your work day, "How long do you work each day?"
Bugscope Team anna, we work about 8 hours a day, sometime more, sometimes less, based on how much work needs to be done that day
Bugscope Team anna, working for a university is very nice because people are usually very interested in what they do. just like your teacher!
- Bugscope Team here is a nice close-up picture of a ladybug jaw: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Ladybird.jpg
- Teacher Parker is our lady driver.
- Teacher Paige asks, "When you get near a dragonfly, why does it fly away?"
Bugscope Team It probably thinks you are too big to eat (because it is predatory) so it probably thinks it is best to fly away because bigger things might it the dragonfly!
- Bugscope Team what we do is we run a multiuser facility. We have lots of instruments like microscopes that students use for their research, and sometimes they need help using them
- Bugscope Team parker, if you get lost driving, just try click on a preset (lower right)
- 10:11am
- Bugscope Team you are doing a great job!
- Teacher Jeremy is interested in how long caterpillars can grow in length.
Bugscope Team i
Bugscope Team i'm looking up that for you jeremy, but i do happen to know that caterpillars have 4000 muscles! (humans only have 628)
Bugscope Team the tomato hornworm caterpillar can get up to 5" long.
- Teacher Gabe asks, "How many scales are on a butterfly's wings?"
Bugscope Team butterflies have TONS of scales. I mentioned earlier, they have so many that when they are caught in a "sticky" situation like a spider web, they can shed them to get free
- Teacher Dorothy will drive and then how much more time do we have, guys?
Bugscope Team you have until 11am our time, which I think is 12pm your time?
- 10:16am
- Teacher I am going to get the last few questions to you because we only about 5 minutes left before we have to eat lunch. That is very important to second graders!
- Bugscope Team totally understand joyce
- Teacher Sarah asks, "Where did you get the idea to become a bug scientist?"
Bugscope Team i'm actually a computer fix-it person for the group, i do bugscope so if a computer breaks during, i'm here to fix. scott and cate know much more about bugs than me
- Teacher Susi asks what the nastiest bug has ever been on the Bugscope.
Bugscope Team sometimes you get these real juicy bugs, which are really hard to view inside the microscope, those are pretty nasty
- Teacher Paige asks, "How long does a lady bug live?"
Bugscope Team ladybugs usually live one reproductive season, so maybe 4-5 months?
Bugscope Team I think they live around a year. Over the winter, they can hibernate, like in the cracks of people's homes
- Bugscope Team there you can see the special tasting hair now that is on the monarch's "foot"
- Teacher Martin wants to know, "Where do beetles live?"
Bugscope Team beetles are everywhere! they are the biggest section of insects in the world.
- 10:21am
- Teacher Parker is interested to know, "How long did you take classes to become a Bugscope scientist?"
Bugscope Team we all have college degrees, so we all went to school for at least 4 years, that's a lot of classes. but it's totally worth it.
- Bugscope Team joyce, remember, all this chat and images from this session are saved to your bugscope member page: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-079
- Teacher Sarah is wondering if the bugs with a lot of guts are the nasty ones.
Bugscope Team well, yeah, the bigger the bug, the more juicy it can get, and that is kinda nasty, right? :)
- Teacher Devin asks, "What is the biggest bug in the world?"
Bugscope Team the goliath beetle is huge! and it can weight 80-100 grams, that's really heavy
- Bugscope Team but most of these bugs in the scope are dried out because they've been dead for a while
- Bugscope Team lobsters are related to roly-polys. You can say they are the biggest "bug" if you want :p
- Bugscope Team here are some photos of the goliath beetle: http://beetlespace.wz.cz/e_Goliathus_albosignatus_kirkianus.html
- Teacher Sean asks, "Do you like Black Swallowtail butterflies?"
Bugscope Team yes, they are beautiful, here's a nice pic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Black_Swallowtail_Papilio_polyxenes_1700px.jpg
- Bugscope Team I think the swallowtails in general are really pretty with the extra flair their wings have
- Teacher Mrs. Metger's class wants to compliment all of the scientists at Bugscope.
- Teacher Paige says, " Thank you for helping us learn more about bugs."
- 10:26am
- Teacher Parker says, "We liked that you let us look at all of the bugs on the website."
- Bugscope Team thank you all for all your questions. we like bugscope. it's fun watching the kids drive the microscope
- Teacher Devin hopes that you learn something new every day.
- Teacher Logan says,
- Bugscope Team we do devin
- Teacher Logan says, "Thank you for letting us move the microscope."
- Bugscope Team you are all welcome
- Bugscope Team joyce, remember the member page, with all the chat and images from this session: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-079
- Teacher We give you big HUZZAH (that's what the Founding Fathers would cheer!) for another great Bugscope experience!
- Teacher We will log off now. Take care!!
- Bugscope Team thanks joyce, great session today
- Bugscope Team thanks everyone
- Bugscope Team bye bye, best
- Bugscope Team okay, closing up the session, nice one everyone
