Connected on 2009-05-13 10:00:00 from , NY, US
- 9:39am
- Bugscope Team hi mrs. b
- Guest Good morning! :) I am a teacher checking out the site from a school in Florida. What are these images of?
- Bugscope Team right now we are looking at the mouth of an ant
- Guest This is neat! How many in your class?
- Bugscope Team we also have a fly, a bumblebee, an earwig, a small cricket, a true bug, a dragonfly, and a lacewing
- Guest Cool, I have been interested in doing this for awhile but haven't yet. Did you catch your specimens?
Bugscope Team our entomologist, Annie, did the collecting of these insects
- Bugscope Team the class we are going to connect with will be on in around 20 minutes. if you like, you can try controlling the microscope for a little bit
- Bugscope Team when using click to drive, you have to remember to click again to stop
- Bugscope Team you can also jump to another insect by clicking on its picture in the presets section in the lower right
- 9:45am
- Guest Sorry, I walked to the next classroom to tell another teacher to check this out! :) She's coming.
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Guest She thinks it's great too! :) All of the information to sign up a class to use it is on your website, right?
- Bugscope Team yes right on the website, and you can also ask us questions via email.
- Bugscope Team you can use a computer lab and get students to log on and chat here in this box, ask us questions
- 9:53am
- Guest This is great...Thank you for the information and letting me work the microscope. When I register my class, I would get all of the log-in info at that time, right?
- Bugscope Team Yes Kendra will work out a time with you and you'll get a message with your session number and password.
- Bugscope Team our secretary will schedule a day and time that you request, or as close to it as possible that is acceptable to you
- Guest This is super... I can't wait! Do you think there is still enough time in the school year to have a session (we get out on June 4th)?
- Bugscope Team we are victims of our own success, after 10 years, and there may not be time before June 4 that isn't taken...
- Bugscope Team it's possible, but i'm not sure. you could always try. this is a busy time of the year
- Guest I hear you! It's great to hear that you are a huge success... this is a great way to get kids using technology... especially students that might not ever get a chance to look through a microscope.
- Bugscope Team Actually Friday this week is open if you could work that soon.
- Guest The 15th? What time?
- Bugscope Team and there is a day available the week of May 25.
- 9:58am
- Guest What is the max number of students available at a time?
- Bugscope Team Anytime noon and after, so far.
- Bugscope Team you can have around 20 computers log in at once, any more and it can really lag
- Bugscope Team more than 20 or so students sometimes slows things down, so we often ask to have them double up on a computer
- Guest I will need to check our computer lab to see if I can reserve it. You said the 15th after noon and what other day did you say?
- Bugscope Team the week of the 25th has an opening in it
- Guest 20 is good... they can sit together if we have more. So, every student sees the image on the computer and has the ability to type in a question?
- Bugscope Team please email sjrobin@illinois.edu if you think you can work Friday, and I will save the time. Then you'll want to send an application in so we can make it official.
- Bugscope Team yes, and one person at a time can drive the microscope
- Guest okay, I will check it out right after I get off the computer here. You said anytime after noon... how long do the sessions normally last?
- Bugscope Team we can confer control to participants of your choice or leave control in your hands
- Bugscope Team usually an hour, sometimes two
- Guest Okay, if you can "pencil" me in for this Friday, that would be great! :) I will email as soon as I have checked out the lab availability.
- 10:03am
- Guest Thank you so much for all of your information... I am going to log off and head down to the lab now. :) Have a fantastic day everyone! I can't wait! :)
- Bugscope Team see you soon@
- Bugscope Team !
- Bugscope Team cool you are on tentatively Friday, 12 to 1
- Guest Thank you so much! :) Have a great day! :)
- 10:19am
- Guest I am the teacher but my password did not work?
- Bugscope Team Good morning, Rita!
- Bugscope Team the password is all lower case
- Bugscope Team we just gave you control
- Bugscope Team yes if you want you can log out and back in quickly using all lowercase and it should work, but either way is fine
- Bugscope Team now you can drive if you would like
- Guest It did not work lowercase so I just logged in as a guest
- Bugscope Team well you are resourceful
- Bugscope Team you can choose from among the presets if you'd like -- that will move you to another position on the stub
- 10:25am
- Bugscope Team Good morning!
- Guest hi
- Guest hi
- Guest hey
- Guest Good Morning
- Guest hello
- Bugscope Team Hello and good morning
- Guest What kind of bug is this
Bugscope Team we are looking at a fly right now
- Guest what other bugs do you have
Bugscope Team today we have a fly, an ant,, a bumblebee, an earwig, a cricket, a plant bug, a dragonfly, a lacewing, and a japanese beetle
- Guest hi
- Guest HI
- Guest what other bugs are we going to see
- Bugscope Team sorry the 'scope is drifting out of control
- Guest how powerful is this microscpope
- Guest what kind of bug is this
- Guest How powerful is this microscope
- Guest do you know what the biggest bug is
Bugscope Team The largest insect is called a titan beetle. It can be up to 17 cm long and it lives in the Amazon rainforest
- Guest how powerful is this micro scope
- Bugscope Team Today we have beetles, we have a lacewing, we have a fly and a bumblbee
- Guest what is an ant head
Bugscope Team it's just a preset showing the head of an ant
- Bugscope Team okay we should be back in gear now
- Guest Hello from Cathedral School
- Bugscope Team now we can see the head of a fly -- can you see it now?
- Bugscope Team Hello!
- Guest thank you
- 10:30am
- Guest its pretty cool
- Bugscope Team Rita you can drive now. If you use click to drive, remember to click to stop or it'll just keep going
- Guest what is the smallest bug
Bugscope Team The smallest insect is called a fairyfly. It is a tiny tiny parasitic wasp that lives underwater. It is smaller than a dot on an i
- Bugscope Team can you all see the fly now?
- Guest woww
- Guest Yes this is amazing
- Bugscope Team here we can see it has 2 compound eyes that are huge and take up most of the head
- Bugscope Team the compound eye is made up of many parts call ommatidia
- Bugscope Team and in between some of those ommatidia are tiny hairs, called setae (see-tee)
- Guest We are amazed right now...
- Bugscope Team to the upper right we can barely just see one of the fly's antennae
- Bugscope Team sometimes, with flies, the males' eyes are close together, and those of the female are far apart
- Bugscope Team this is the carbon doublestick tape on the stub
- Bugscope Team this is what we use to get the insects to stick down
- Guest Ok that is funny let's try again
- Bugscope Team if you would like to drive around, try taking the magnification as low as it will go
- Bugscope Team at 618x it might be harder to find things on the stub
- 10:35am
- Bugscope Team ha now we see someone
- Bugscope Team the fly is back!
- Bugscope Team you can see that it is mounted on its dorsal side -- the ventral side is up
- Guest We would like to see the feet and how it can walk on the ceiling
- Bugscope Team the ant is to the west
- Bugscope Team click on preset no. 15
- Bugscope Team hey cool! this is one of its feet
- Bugscope Team you can see that it has two claws, and you can see those frilly setae
- Bugscope Team the setae are on a pad called the pulvillus
- Guest Is this sticky
- Bugscope Team and the setae are specialized to let the fly stick to the ceiling
- Bugscope Team take the magnification up a little and you can see how they're shaped
- Bugscope Team they are sticky, but it may not be from a sticky liquid
- Bugscope Team they act like velcro or suction cups
- Bugscope Team the tenent setae are often shaped like little suction cups
- Guest We are currently looking at all the presets
- Bugscope Team ha like Cate said ;)
- Bugscope Team this is the face of the earwig, and you can see its mouthparts
- Bugscope Team the jaws are the things with little forks at the ends
- 10:40am
- Guest what does it eat
Bugscope Team Earwigs eat plant matter, usually decomposing plant matter. They are sort of omnivorous/detrivorous.
- Guest how does it live
Bugscope Team It hangs out under leaves and rocks and they come out at night to eat plants and rotten stuff.
- Bugscope Team in insects the jaws open to the side unlike our jaws
- Guest How big is it
Bugscope Team Aaron it is about a centimeter or so long
- Bugscope Team you often find earwigs in your garden, like at the base of tomato plants
- Guest What does it have in it
- Guest do the hairs protect it in a way
Bugscope Team the hairs are sensory -- they have touch receptors, or taste receptors, or hot/cold sensing ability
- Bugscope Team or under rocks
- Guest what country does it live in
Bugscope Team Earwigs are found on every continent except Antarctica
- Guest Does it have eyes
- Bugscope Team this is the ant
- Bugscope Team you can see one of its eyes, on the side of its head to the right
- Bugscope Team the hairs allow them to feel whats going on around them- kind of like how our skin lets us feel. They don't have skin like us though, they have a hard exoskeleton
- Guest how big is it
- Bugscope Team this is a relatively small ant
- Bugscope Team it is several mm long
- Guest How does it feel things
Bugscope Team the hairs it has are connected to nerves that are beneath the exoskeleton
- Guest t kind of ant is this
Bugscope Team I am not sure. Ants are difficult for non-ant scientists to identify. And, I am not an ant scientist
- Guest how big are the ants eys
Bugscope Team ants have much smaller eyes compared to flies because they live mostly in the ground so they rely more on their antennae for information
- Bugscope Team the antennae fit into the head using a ball-and-socket joint
- Guest what are those bumps on the face
- Bugscope Team this is the edge of the jaw
- 10:46am
- Bugscope Team the bumps and ridges make the head a little more sturdy
- Guest are those hairs
Bugscope Team they are hairs, but we usually call them setae, or bristles
- Bugscope Team driving a $600,000 microscope
- Guest How fast does an antn walk
Bugscope Team not very fast, probably about 10 cm a minute, depending on the size of the ant
- Bugscope Team the setae help the ant to sense its environment
- Guest I think I need drivers training
- Bugscope Team the bulb-like thing on the bottom of where we are looking now is the abdomen
- Bugscope Team I thought you were doing quite well, not having had a chance to practice
- Guest Thanks...you are being kind
- Bugscope Team The people who study ants and bees call the abdomen a gaster.
- Bugscope Team gaster as in 'gastric,' which refers to the stomach
- Guest how big is the microscope
Bugscope Team the microscope is a little bigger than a large desk, and the column, at one end, is tall
- Guest how many of these microscopes are in the world
Bugscope Team there are probably a few hundred microscopes this good in the world
- 10:51am
- Guest What do you use these for besides teaching
Bugscope Team we have students and professors come in and do their research on our microscopes. We also image samples for companies
- Bugscope Team ours has capabilities we don't use for Bugsscope, and there are fewer microscopes just like ours
- Bugscope Team you can see that the images the microscope produces are in black and white -- in grey scale
- Guest why aren't they in color
- Bugscope Team the grey scale imaging is because we are not using light to collect the images we see
- Guest are those hairs
Bugscope Team The smaller spikes are setae. Some of them help the insect to feel the ground, some have taste or smell receptors in them, and some help to protect the insects foot, and keep it clean.
- Bugscope Team we get the image as a signal, some parts dark and some parts light, as you see
- Bugscope Team we are hitting the sample with electrons, and other electrons are bouncing off and being collected we get a 3d image from those collected electrons
- 10:56am
- Bugscope Team you can tell from this claw that this insect cannot climb on walls very easily
- Bugscope Team you don't often see crickets on walls because they don't have those tiny setae to help them stick
- Bugscope Team these are scales from a moth or butterfly, probably
- Bugscope Team dragonflies eat other insects, and that may be how those scales got stuck to this one's eye
- Bugscope Team butterflies, moths, silverfish, mosquitos, and a few other insects have scales
- 11:01am
- Bugscope Team this is a damselfly
- Guest what are those things on the eye
- Bugscope Team oops thanks annie
- Bugscope Team see how the eye is round? it has great peripheral vision
- Bugscope Team They are in the same order ;)
- Bugscope Team the things on the eye were scales from the wings of a moth or butterfly, probably
- Bugscope Team that is charitable of you, Annie
- Bugscope Team this is silver paint on the tape
- Bugscope Team The difference between a damselfly and a dragonfly is that damselflies have narrow heads and dragonflies have big round heads. Damselflies usually hold their wings straight up behind them, while dragonflies usually rest with their wings flat
- Bugscope Team we use silver paint to help make the insects stick down, and to help complete the conductive pathway for the electrons to run off of the samples
- Bugscope Team The fore and hind wings of damselflies are the same shape, while the fore and hind wings of dragonflies are different shapes
- Bugscope Team for the electron microscope to work we need to have the sample stage in a vacuum chamber, as now
- Guest Sorry my driving is a bit off
- Bugscope Team Damselflies are also usually smaller and thinner than dragonflies
- Bugscope Team edge of the world!
- Guest Trying to get to what looked like the whole
- Guest what is it
- Bugscope Team hey you found a pollen grain
- 11:06am
- Bugscope Team the spiky ball in the middle is a grain of pollen
- Guest Did I say whole...gee I meant hole
- Bugscope Team did you want to see the pinhole in the thorax of the cricket?
- Guest I just explained how pollen floates in the air and they inhale it too
- Guest Yes please drive us there
- Bugscope Team looks like we see the lining of one of the tracheae
- Bugscope Team the tubes through which air passes into the body via the spiracles
- Bugscope Team the tube is all mangled 'cause of the pin
- 11:11am
- Bugscope Team ha cool
- Bugscope Team does it look like anyone you know?
- Bugscope Team this is a true bug
- Guest an elaphant
Bugscope Team it's proboscis is much like an elephant's trunk. That is how it eats food- it drinks the liquids from sap or sometimes blood
- Guest what does it eat
Bugscope Team This bug sucks juices from plants. It can transmit plant diseases, so this is considered a pest insect
- Bugscope Team yes it has a sort of a trunk, doesn'
- Bugscope Team t it?
- Bugscope Team inside the proboscis, where we are looking now, it has muscles that help it pump liquids
- Bugscope Team aphids have a snout like this
- Guest Is its cousin a misquotio?
Bugscope Team No, not at all, but that is a good guess based on the mouthparts. A mosquito is a type of fly--so it is more closely related to a house fly or a horse fly than to this little bug
- Bugscope Team All true bugs have sucking mouthparts like this.
- Bugscope Team and its antennae
- 11:16am
- Bugscope Team it lost some of its legs after it died
- Bugscope Team when they get dry they are very fragile
- Guest what kind of plant is it mostly found on
Bugscope Team These bugs are generalists. They will feed on many different types of plants. They especially like strawberries!
- Bugscope Team me too!
- Guest what is this on the bumblebee
- Bugscope Team this is a palp, and you can see that it has little setae sticking out of its tip
- Bugscope Team the palp is like a feeler that helps the bumblebee manipulate and taste its food
- Guest What does a palp do and what is it?
Bugscope Team there are mandibular and maxillary palps that should correspond with their position relative to the jaws
- Bugscope Team it has little taste-buds on the end
- 11:22am
- Bugscope Team like Scot said :)
- Bugscope Team now we see the tongue, which I think is called a glossa in a bee
- Bugscope Team i see a lot of dead bumblebees with their tongue sticking out it seems
- Bugscope Team now we can see where the palps are, and the tongue coming down from the whiter things below the jaws
- Guest this does not look like a bee at all !!!!!
Bugscope Team We are looking very very close at the mouth
- Bugscope Team I have noticed that too Cate, and I don't know why that is.
- Bugscope Team take the magnification down and see what it looks like up close
- Bugscope Team oops I mean further away]
- Guest I have it at 51x
- Bugscope Team Perhaps drive a little Northeast?
- Bugscope Team oh sorry that is as far as we can go, isn't it?
- Bugscope Team that was me...
- Bugscope Team now you can see the eyes
- Bugscope Team go to see what that stuff is on the eye to the left
- Bugscope Team if you'd like
- Guest I have no controls
- 11:27am
- Guest is that thing hanging down from the white thing a tongue
Bugscope Team yes that was the tongue
- Guest More pollen?
- Bugscope Team this is a different kind of pollen
- Guest what kind of pollen is this
Bugscope Team we don't know what kind of pollen it is; it is hard to tell
- Guest what kind of bee is this
Bugscope Team This is a bumblebee
- Bugscope Team There are some scientists who specialize in identifying pollen. They can look at a pollen grain and know what plant it came from. That is one of the ways that people have been able to determine how long certain species of plants have been around.
- Guest Our 4th grade class must leave now. We really appreciate your time.
- Guest Thank You
- Guest THANKS
- Guest thank you
- Bugscope Team Thank you all.
- Guest thanks alot i had tons of fun
- Guest thank you
- Bugscope Team Oh Thank You!
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your questions and your interest with bugscope
- Guest Thank you!
- Bugscope Team please consider connecting with us again
- Guest thank you very very much!!!!!!!!!!
- Guest Thank you very very much for showing us these bugs.Ihad a lot of fun
- Guest Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Guest I am sorry for the confusion. We would have been more prepared if we had known it wasn't cancelled
- Guest you all were great
- Guest I think that the 4th grade did pretty good without any prep on this.
- Guest Thank you again
- Bugscope Team we are glad you could come online nonetheless
- Bugscope Team here is your session info, with the transcript and images: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-050/
- Bugscope Team you did a great job
- Guest i hope we can do this again
- Bugscope Team see you next time!
- Guest Have a great day and we will try to do this again next year
- 11:32am
- Guest bye
- Guest hope you have agood day
- Guest Great job
- Guest Thanks Scot and Cate
- Bugscope Team Yay. Thank you!
- Guest I enjoyed driving the 600,000 microscope
- Bugscope Team all right session is down
