Connected on 2008-11-11 16:15:00 from , IL, US
- 4:02pm
- Teacher Hey!
- 4:08pm
- Bugscope Team hello!
- Teacher Did Alex mention I'm travelling to U of I tomorrow to bring my son (a high school senior) in for a college visit. He did Bugscope once at his school. He looked at teeth. Anyone remember?
- Bugscope Team i mentioned that to scott, yes, i think i responded to you, but if i forgot to send the email, it's all good, just come on over, and we'll give you a tour
- Bugscope Team we are done setting up presets and have unlocked the session. Feel free to start moving around
- Bugscope Team i'm alex by the way
- Bugscope Team i'll logout as scott now
- Bugscope Team you can click on a preset to the lower right or you can drive manually using the controls
- Teacher Scott, how are you Alex?
- Bugscope Team here i am!
- Student Hi everyone!!!
- Bugscope Team well, scott logged in as himself, and i was using his login.
- Bugscope Team hello robyn!
- Bugscope Team hi folks! welcome to bugscope.
- Bugscope Team Hello all
- 4:13pm
- Bugscope Team we've got annie. annie is a killer phd student in entomology, she'll answer all the hard *insect* questions...
- Student thanks alex
- Bugscope Team haha
- Bugscope Team I will try
- Teacher We have about half the class here. We will start driving in a moment.
- Student hi cate :)
- Bugscope Team ok, feel free to ask us any questions you have, about insects, the scope, anything
- Student nice hat eric
- Guest Hi
- Guest I'll be back as a student
- Teacher Wow, why all the presets? I really like the cicada for our student, Joris. He's not here yet.
- Guest there's no student tab
Bugscope Team jeehyun, are you in the same computer lab?
- Student sorry
- Guest it's ok
- Bugscope Team it's a cicada killer, which is a really big wasp (so big we only have its booty so we can see the stinger)
- Guest yes
- Guest i'm jee
- 4:18pm
- Bugscope Team ah, yeah, i see, it doesn't work for me either, a bug in the software!!! hey, it'll be totally fine, we made the guest functionally the same as student, so you will have all the same functions as any other student
- Guest Thanks, alex
- Bugscope Team we'll work on fixing the bug
- Bugscope Team these are housefly antennae, which have 2 parts
- Student It looks like there is hair on the antennaes...what is that used for?
- Bugscope Team These are aristate antennae
- Bugscope Team Only flies have aristate antennae
- Student What do they do?
- Bugscope Team The hairs on the antennae (and all over the fly) help the insect to sense its environment. Insects taste, smell, hear, and feel using the hairs on their bodies
- Bugscope Team But we don't call them "hairs," we call them setae
- Bugscope Team those hairs are called setae, they stick though the exoskeleton and are attached to nerves underneath
- 4:23pm
- Bugscope Team here you can practice focusing
- Bugscope Team this is a female-- you can tell because the spacing of the eyes is so far apart
- Student is this the eye?
Bugscope Team Yes, on the left side of the screen is one of the compound eyes
- Bugscope Team well--left to middle
- Bugscope Team the individual facets are called ommatidia
- 4:28pm
- Guest why is it honey-comb-like?
Bugscope Team I guess the theory is that the honey comb shape is the most efficient shape to fill a round surface (think soccer ball)
- Student what are the eyes sticking out of the eyes?
Bugscope Team those would be setae. We believe when we see these short stiff hairs, they help the insect sense wind movement
- Student oops what are the hairs sticking out of the eyes?
- Bugscope Team so they are navigate the air drafts, or know when a hand or flyswatter is coming at them
- Bugscope Team if you remove the setae from the eye, the insect doesn't know how to navigate in the wind
- Student Do human eyes have something similiar to setae to sense wind movement?
Bugscope Team not really...
- Bugscope Team And every time I tell that story, I think of the poor graduate student who had to shave the fly's eye
- Student what is on the eye, the dark parts?
Bugscope Team that might be where the detecter wasn't getting as much signal back from the sample (it was angling away from the detector)
- Bugscope Team this is a ladybug face
- Bugscope Team you can't see the eyes 2 well, but you can see the mouthparts
- Student Is it the underside or the top?
Bugscope Team the underside
- 4:33pm
- Student Where exactly is the mouth?
- Bugscope Team there is a hinged jaw and below that are a set of palps and to the left you can see a bigger palp (it looks like a vaccuum nozzle)
- Bugscope Team palps help manipulate or taste food
- Teacher what is that thing that looks like a claw?
Bugscope Team The two little hooked things that kind of look like legs are labial palps. Right above the labium are (were) the mandibles (the jaws)
- 4:39pm
- Bugscope Team we are close to a claw now
- Student Are those hair looking things the same kind of thing as the hairs on the fly?
Bugscope Team They serve similar (if not identical) functions. Different setae have different functions.
- Student which way should we drive to see the claw
Bugscope Team it is to the right
- Bugscope Team yep, they are setae. but setae come with different functions, some are chemosensory, others are mechanosensory, and there are other types too.
- Student do thse setae serve the same purpose as the flys setae?
- Bugscope Team think of an insect wearing a suit of armor, normally you wouldn't be able to feel much. With these hairs poking through (attached to nerves) they can feel what's going on around them
- Bugscope Team keep going you will see it
- Bugscope Team like if you build a little armor suit for your cat and stuck him in there, but made little holes for her whiskers, that would like like setae
- Bugscope Team you can see a type of ball and socket joint
- Bugscope Team there is is in the middle
- Bugscope Team the round part is called the coxa, the second segment of the leg is the trochanter--but we can't see those parts anymore
- Student I have students driving at the teacher computer. They are doing a great job.
- 4:44pm
- Bugscope Team it can be difficult to drive but you seem to be doing great
- Student is this the claw?
Bugscope Team this is the bottom of the claw
- Bugscope Team The claw is sort of out of focus right now
- Student How's that for focus?
- Bugscope Team another option you can do is we can confer control to the student who would like to drive instea.d of switching out the teacher one if you want
- Bugscope Team its getting much better!
- Bugscope Team so this is half the claw
- Student is that more setae?
Bugscope Team that is called tenet setae, which as annie said, asks as suction cups
- Student What are we looking at now?
- Student These setae are on the tarsus. Is that the underbelly?
- Bugscope Team tenet or tenent, comes from the root tener, spanish for 'to hold'
- Bugscope Team this is another image of the special setae that allows the insect to walk onvertical surfaces
- 4:49pm
- Student Could you give the controls to Nancy?
- Bugscope Team nancy, you are driving now
- Student I need to get me some of those!
- Bugscope Team you should see controls on your right, magnify, nav, focus and adjust
- Student What are those desert-like grooves?
Bugscope Team after insects die, they tend to dry out a bit. the cracks are where it used to be more "fluffy"
- Student Do all insects have similar things to walk on vertical surfaces?
- Bugscope Team this is cool, usually the ommatidia are a little deflated after a mosquito dies, but this one held up pretty well
- Bugscope Team when you take the mag all the way down, it looks like asome hunchback monster
- Student Are those antenna coming out next to the eyes?
Bugscope Team yes, those are the antennae
- Bugscope Team Alex is Annie, Annie is Alex!
- 4:54pm
- Student Is this the end of the stinger?
Bugscope Team Mosquitoes don't have stingers, they actually bite you. The only insects with stingers are wasps, bees, and ants.
- Student can you give the controls to mulder?
- Bugscope Team here's the bumblebee
- Teacher Please let Paula drive.
- Bugscope Team paula has control
- Student Are the parts that criscross parts of the jaw?
Bugscope Team yes they are
- Student what are those two blade like things crossing each other?
Bugscope Team Those are the jaws (aka the mandibles)
- 5:00pm
- Student Do bumblebees, or insects in general, have pores?
Bugscope Team They all have pores of some description
- Student Do all insects have eyes with all those different sections on them? Which insect has the most?
Bugscope Team All insects with eyes have compound eyes as adults. There are some eyeless insects, that have lost their eyes secondarily. These insect usually live in caves or underground. There is no way or knowing which insect has the most ommatidia
- Bugscope Team Pores in insects have many different functions. Some pores are on glands that excrete pheromones or defensive compounds. The waxes that insects use to waterproof their cuticles also come out of pores.
- Bugscope Team there is the stinger
- Bugscope Team you found it!
- Guest what are the layers? skin?
Bugscope Team The layers are segments of the bee's abdomen
- Bugscope Team Because there are probably a million species of insects
- Teacher Zoot alors!
- Teacher Al wants to control
- Bugscope Team they are like plates
- 5:05pm
- Bugscope Team ok al go for it
- Bugscope Team plates on an armadillo
- Teacher A different line of questioning: what advice can you give these pre-service teachers in using Bugscope or in teaching math and science (K-8)?
- Bugscope Team annie (al(as alex) is typing a loong answer
- Bugscope Team this is on the bumblebee, they have forked setae which is a little different
- Guest why are they forked?
Bugscope Team Cate and I were just talking about this--it could be that it helps them to hold onto pollen
- Bugscope Team Bugscope is a really dynamic resource for kids, it allows them to be the "bosses"--rather than experts sitting up at the front of the room and telling them what they think is important, the KIDS get to make the decisions--they get to choose what they learn
- Student what kind of inquiry questions could you start kids out with? Something for them to investigate...
Bugscope Team Um, well...often the kids just take off and run with it. As soon as they know what they are seeing, they usually have TONS of questions..many which you all asked today
- 5:10pm
- Teacher Please let Robyn drive.
- Bugscope Team go for it robyn
- Bugscope Team such as what do the hairs do? Where does this insect live? What does this insect eat?
- Bugscope Team kind of reminds me of a brain (the image)
- Bugscope Team You could frame a lesson around something like: what do different insects eat and what do their mouthparts look like
- Bugscope Team There tend to be a lot of general insect questions like: what is the most painful sting, do cockroaches transmit diseases, what is the largest insect, what is the smallest insect, what is the most poisonous insect
- Bugscope Team sometimes they will also ask us how we came to do what we do, or why we like science in general, or if there is a specialty of science we like more
- Student what is the largest insect?
Bugscope Team The largest insect the titan beetle, which is a longhorned beetle
- Student how big is it
- Student What is the largest cicada?
Bugscope Team Body is around 4 cm, that is the largest one I have seen anyway
- 5:15pm
- Bugscope Team The heaviest insect is the goliath beetle (a scarab) and the longest insect is probably between the giant weta (which can also be very heavy) and a tropical stick insect species
- Teacher Give Dr. Clishem controls please
- Student how heavy?
Bugscope Team Excess of 100 grams
- Bugscope Team giant wetas are a type of katydid, by the way
- Teacher Which insects sports this lovely stinger?
Bugscope Team A cicada killer, which is a sphecid wasp
- Bugscope Team cicada killers are solitary wasps that do as their name implies-- kills cicadas, which isn't the hardest thing to do since they tend to be dumb
- Student Is it true that the cicada killer paralyzes its victims and lay eggs inside their eyes?
Bugscope Team I am not sure about the eye thing, but the rest is true
- Teacher We are going to end with the butterfly wing.
- Student mulder is hoping to direct his own horror movie some day and he was just getting ideas
Bugscope Team good luck
- Bugscope Team these are the individual scales
- Teacher Looks like a wicker basket
- 5:20pm
- Guest Thank you
- Guest thank you! this was a lot of fun!
- Student Thank you
- Student thank you, this was cool!!!
- Student what are the holes for?
- Student thank you very much for your time!
- Student thanks for this unique experience.
- Bugscope Team thank you for your great questions and driving you did well
- Student Thanks for your time
- Guest Thank you! this was a fun experience!
- Student Thank you for this great experience
- Bugscope Team Thank you for all the good questions
- Student Thank you very much for your time, your answers, and your efforts. I wish you all the best.
- Student Thank you for spending time with us and showing us this very cool online tool! I'll be telling others about it!
- Student Thanks very much for this experience
- Bugscope Team thank you and you can visit your member page to look at your chat and images from today at any time
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-103/
- Teacher Thanks again. Maybe see you tomorrow if I can convince him that we don't have to chase home for him to play World of Warcraft on his "day off from school." Ciao.
- Bugscope Team See you tomorrow maybe then
- Bugscope Team just remember there's the new expansion for that game coming out!
- Bugscope Team :p
- Bugscope Team thank you again
- Teacher I will be in line at midnight with him.
- Bugscope Team haha as long as you dont have to stand outside (if at all possible)~
- 5:26pm
- Teacher Bye
- Bugscope Team see ya and thanks for a great session
