Bugscope: Members Page

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2009-11-17 13:00:00 from Moreno, IA, US

11:59am
Bugscope Team vac pumping down
Bugscope Team hello mrs. schaa, welcome to bugscope!
Teacher Hi, how goes it?
Bugscope Team good, we are setting up presets. session in 60 minutes, right?
Teacher corredt
Teacher oops correct
Bugscope Team cool.
Bugscope Team your sample was very interesting
Bugscope Team it's in the scope now, the scope vacuum is pumping down
Teacher yes, we have a proscope that they looked at the pellets with and the kids were AMAZED
12:05pm
Bugscope Team we found a mouse skull, we think a mouse
Teacher yes, not suprised, these are owl pellets that owls "hacked" up!
Teacher what are we looking at now?
Bugscope Team this is a mess of the hair, most of the pellet is this hair
Bugscope Team we are trying to find interesting things in the hair, then we will make presets out of them
Teacher mouse hair
Bugscope Team but we also have individual bones that we'll make presets for
Bugscope Team probably mouse hair, but it looks like a lot of different kinds of hair, so maybe some other things that it ate?
Bugscope Team it was fun to dissect the pellet, thanks for sending that to us!
Teacher was that your first owl pellet?
12:10pm

Bugscope Team cate and i are not sure. it was the first i've seen. scott might have seen one years ago, but he is at home today. maybe he will login remotely and we can ask him

Teacher are you college students?
Bugscope Team nope, both cate and i are full time staff at the Beckman Institute, part of the University of Illinois
Teacher so college graduates?
Bugscope Team cate is a microscopist with a degree in physics. i'm a systems admin with degrees in music composition
Teacher music comp running a microscope.....
Bugscope Team well, cate is running the scope, i'm here for technical and chat support

Bugscope Team scott is the longest running bugscope member, he's been here from the beginning, 1999
Bugscope Team is this your first bugscope session, mrs. schaa?
12:15pm
Teacher so what made you decide to work at beckman
Bugscope Team beckman is a top notch research facility, with amazing science going on in there. so for me, it was a very good opportunity to work here.

Teacher gotcha. cool opportunitiy for kids to learn from it too!
Bugscope Team and being a systems admin, the kinds of computers beckman can acquire, well, it makes this job way way cool
Bugscope Team yes, the whole reason bugscope was started (through a grant from NASA) was to try and encourage kids to learn about the sciences, and maybe become a scientist one day. doing bugscope is one of the more enjoyable parts of my work day. working with students is a very cool
Teacher AND get more women into the field!!!!!!
Bugscope Team totally
Teacher my youngest daughter is a freshman entering the health science field at the University of Iowa
12:21pm
Bugscope Team there is another outreach project on the UI campus that allows girls to come to campus and do research, and create a mock thesis, kind of like being a PHD student for 2 weeks.

Teacher really? What is the name? She is planning on Clinical Lab Science, researching blood??
Bugscope Team trying to find the web site for it, hole on

12:27pm
Teacher girls or college students? my daughter is a freshman at Iowa
Bugscope Team http://core.igb.uiuc.edu/test/GAMES_poster_main-final.pdf
Bugscope Team wow, that was way too hard to find
Bugscope Team but there's a PDF of the project, called GAMES (Girls Adventures in Mathematics Engineering and Science), it's for young girls, 6th grade up to high school i think...
Bugscope Team this web page talks about it a bit too: http://www.igb.uiuc.edu/about.html

Teacher my daughter only has 1 semester of math- Pre-cal..then she NEVER has to take math again! We are more right-brained than left.
12:33pm

Teacher But- as you may have heard from author/researcher Daniel Pink- Right Brainers will Rule the World!!!!
Teacher I'm just razzing you guys cause I figure you are left brainers!
Bugscope Team to tell you the truth, i always forget which one is which, left or right, maybe that makes me a left brainer?
Bugscope Team or a right?

Teacher analytical, linear thinkers (usually math lovers) are left brained
12:38pm
Teacher got to walk away for a min. be right back
Bugscope Team ok

12:43pm
Bugscope Team ;)
Bugscope Team imagine these are not all mice but voles
Teacher what's a vole?
Bugscope Team they are similar to mice but more stout, sometimes called field mice
Bugscope Team but are these owls your pets?
Bugscope Team voles are the same subfamily as lemmings and muskrats
Teacher wouldn't it be cool if we could see remnants of a snake>

Bugscope Team yeah the fangs, head

Teacher oh no, the teachers buy these from Carolina Biological company. The kids dissect the pellets themselves with a tweezers then look at them with a proscope
12:49pm
Bugscope Team I had never heard of a proscope before, just looked it up
Teacher it's a little hand-held thingie that has a magnification of 64 x 1, maybe?
Bugscope Team yeah looks kind of cool, and it's digital -- the ones I saw a minute ago on the web

Teacher want me to email you the ones we did of the owl pellets?
Bugscope Team Sure!
Teacher what the email
Bugscope Team bugscope@beckman.illinois.edu
Teacher duh, of course.
Bugscope Team I think that is right.
12:55pm
Bugscope Team this is really different for us -- very cool-looking but not part of our 'expertise'
Bugscope Team i just unlocked the session, you should see controls for the scope on your right, mrs. schaa
Teacher yes
Bugscope Team you can click on a preset any time to go to that location
Bugscope Team if you have any questions at all please just ask
Teacher hang on I'm gonna email you 1 pic quick before the kids walk in
Bugscope Team ok
Bugscope Team Cool. Thank You.
1:01pm
Teacher Ok, just sent you one pic
Teacher Ok, so i click on a preset then it puts it on the main screen?
Bugscope Team yep
Bugscope Team i see your screen shot of the pellet contents. ewe...!

Bugscope Team ooh you can see the scales on the hair
Bugscope Team okay, so this is a close up of the hairy mass, which is what comprises most of the pellet
Teacher the kids said they couldn't see the hairs when they were dissecting the pellets with their tweezers!
Bugscope Team doesn't look like too much human hair
Bugscope Team owl did not eat any people
Bugscope Team we think there was a vole skull in the pellet, so maybe this is vole hair? poor little dude.
Teacher Ok, kids are here, gonna do a little intro, then you can respond to them ok?
Bugscope Team looks like a few different kinds of hair
Bugscope Team sounds great Mrs. Schaa!
Bugscope Team totally, bring on the questions!

1:07pm
Teacher Hello scientists! The 1st and 2nd graders are here to look at what you have on the microscope!
Bugscope Team hello kids, welcome to bugscope!
Bugscope Team you are looking at a close up of hairs from a little vole (kinda like a smaller mouse) that ended up in the owl pellet
Teacher ok, what are we looking at right now?
Bugscope Team the owl pellet is mostly this think hairball
Bugscope Team these are various samples of hair from the owl pellet
Bugscope Team so we cut off a chunk of the thickest part and put that inside the electron microscope for you
Teacher what is this 53 thingie above us?
Bugscope Team that is the scale bar. um stands for micrometers or microns
Bugscope Team you can see the scales on the hair -- most of the hair is rougher-looking than human hair, which seems to have finer scales
Bugscope Team if you click on the 53 micron bar you can open a list of 'scope parameters; then click on it again to close that
Bugscope Team one micron (1 um) is one millionth of a meter, very very small

Bugscope Team yeah, like scott said, try clicking on the scale bar
Teacher what's this?
Bugscope Team micrometers are one thousandth of a meter, or one thousand nanometers
Bugscope Team this is part of a skull, we think it's the skull of a vole
Bugscope Team looks like a nasal cavity, hard to tell
Bugscope Team a vole is different from a mouse, a vole is in the same subfamily as a lemming
Bugscope Team you can see the sutures in the skull, where it grows
Bugscope Team right Scot is explaining it better
Bugscope Team all the hairs around it are the hairs that made up the majority of the owl pellet. it's hard to remove all those hairs
Bugscope Team in babies those are open; when you get older they seal up
1:12pm
Teacher you mean the cracks?
Bugscope Team yep those are the ones

Bugscope Team yes those cracks are the places where the bone adds onto itself when the skull grows

Teacher We would like to back up and see the actual bone..
Bugscope Team this is as low as we can go with the magnification. The SEM is so powerful we can't go any lower
Bugscope Team the spaces between the sutures are called fontanelles
Bugscope Team you mean zoom out? unfortunately, we are at the minimum already. the electron scope is designed to view things smaller than this skull, sorry about that. if you drive around you can probably see some more of the skull though
Bugscope Team we thought we'd put the skill on there anyway, so you could look at details of it

Bugscope Team when we run the microscope we go to the longest working distance so that yo can see as much as possible at low mag like this

Bugscope Team if you are having trouble with "click to drive", try "click to center", that gives you more fine control
Bugscope Team the microscope is designed to go to very high mag and as Cate said cannot always accommodate us at low mag

1:17pm

Bugscope Team cool, this is a bone that came from the pellet
Bugscope Team these are all little bones that were found in the pellet

Bugscope Team the bumpy background is the carbon tape we stick specimens

Bugscope Team cool! that looked like a femoral head
Bugscope Team there it is
Bugscope Team we are used to looking at ball and socket joints in insects, like where the antennae fit into the head

Bugscope Team now we get to see this, which is much like what your femur looks like where it inserts into the pelvis
Bugscope Team now you can see silver paint in the background -- the bubbles
Bugscope Team all these images are black and white, that's because the ESEM uses electrons to gather the image, not light. since color is a result of the frequency of light, and since we aren't using light to gather the image, thus no color

Bugscope Team ah, cool, we think this is salt
Teacher what's this?
Bugscope Team salt is usually cubic in shape
Bugscope Team I wonder if it is ureic acid crystals
Teacher salt from what?
Bugscope Team well, maybe scott is right, not salt
Bugscope Team well it is salts but not from sodium chloride perhaps
1:22pm
Bugscope Team whatever this is, it came from the owl pellet, for sure

Teacher what is this?
Bugscope Team notice the magnification, 3378x, this is highly magnified.
Bugscope Team animals like us excrete urea, and those may have been uric or ureic acid crystals
Bugscope Team Scott any ideas? I thought it was some sort of plant fiber
Bugscope Team you can see a curved tooth there
Bugscope Team yes it does look like a plant fiber
Bugscope Team this was on one of the bones
Bugscope Team that does look like a snake fang on the upper left
Bugscope Team oh wow, cool!

Bugscope Team nice, click to center!

Bugscope Team good job driving the scope mrs. schaa

Bugscope Team bones have canals in them that blood vessels go through, and at a higher mag scale, there are canals called Haversian canals that are part of the bone remodeling process that goes on as long as the animal is alive

1:27pm
Bugscope Team this is the ball and socket of a jaw I bet
Bugscope Team where the jaw fits into the skull
Bugscope Team the temporomandibular joint
Teacher What are the holes/bumps on the ball?
Bugscope Team go up a little higher and we can see

Bugscope Team increase the magnification we mean

Bugscope Team they are places where the bone is worn, and when it gets into the owl

Bugscope Team 's digestive tract it gets dissolved more easily

Bugscope Team under the skin, that is

Bugscope Team can you drive to the end of the jawbone, if that is what it is? you could use click to center
Teacher we're gonna zoom in on the hair now
1:32pm
Bugscope Team cool!

Teacher what is this?
Bugscope Team we aren't sure, sorry
Bugscope Team it's very very small though
Bugscope Team maybe some kind of mold?
Bugscope Team I wasn't sure, it reminded me of a pollen grain, but it's too small

Bugscope Team yeah it is really interesting but we don't know. it is about the same diameter as a bacterium is long

Bugscope Team if you are trying to center in on something, using "click to center" works much easier

Bugscope Team the small things are crystals of some sort, and this may also be a crystalline structure that formed more quickly
Bugscope Team nice, so this is about one micron in diameter?

Bugscope Team a little more maybe
Bugscope Team about 2 microns I think

Bugscope Team that means you can fit 500,000 to 1,000,000 of these little dudes in 1 meter

Teacher what do you think this is?
Bugscope Team this is another crystal, and it is not cubic like sodium chloride
1:38pm

Bugscope Team gallium arsenide makes crystals like that, but certainly so do other more common chemicals
Teacher this is?
Bugscope Team this is the tooth of the vole
Bugscope Team the vole skull had one tooth still in the socket
Bugscope Team let'
Bugscope Team s drive further along the skull

Bugscope Team I think this is an eye socket

Bugscope Team scott is controlling the scope now, he is an expert

Bugscope Team yep, and there's the other eye socket

Bugscope Team molars
Bugscope Team wow, cool

Bugscope Team sharp teeth at the front and molars at the back
Bugscope Team that's a good way to go for eating stuff

1:43pm

Bugscope Team funny looking molars
Bugscope Team you can see where the enamel is worn
Bugscope Team deer teeth look like this, somewhat

Teacher we're losing the little ones, move us around more please!
Bugscope Team enamel at the top (middle of the screen) , dentin at the bottom

Bugscope Team more bones here

Bugscope Team these are probably mostly ribs

Bugscope Team ah cool rib bones

Bugscope Team yes rodent teeth grow constantly

1:48pm

Teacher teacher thinks they are ribs

Bugscope Team blobs of hair all over the place, it was hard to remove some of the hairs
Bugscope Team we have people who use the microCT to image mouse ribs, and those are usually separate, but these could be shortribs

Bugscope Team wow, that looks cool

Bugscope Team this looks more like a human hair but it is tapered

Teacher whats the ribbing on it?
Bugscope Team those are the scales; they show us how it grows, in little bursts

Teacher wow amazing!
1:53pm

Bugscope Team looks like a screw (a small one at that) :)

Teacher can you take us inside the hole?

Bugscope Team I am not getting updates, working from home...
Bugscope Team someone else may have to drive

Bugscope Team the pits in the bone are where it dissolved a little when it was inside the owl

Bugscope Team I want to see if that is a fang

1:58pm

Bugscope Team looks like a snake fang, very small

Teacher what this?
Bugscope Team ooh I don't know what these are

Bugscope Team some kind of hairs?

Teacher but there aew smooth-whiskers?

Bugscope Team yeah, they were very smooth

Bugscope Team blood vessels I think, some of them

Bugscope Team I am sorry we do not know this stuff for sure, but it is exciting for us to see

Teacher take us on another journey

Bugscope Team let's check out this other bone

Teacher what kind of bone is this?

2:03pm
Bugscope Team I think it is a long bone, like a femur or humerus

Bugscope Team inside is where the marrow normally is

Bugscope Team the bone we were on was really skinny and curved

Bugscope Team it is hard to maintain perspective with these samples -- thank you for sending them. it is a new world for us
Teacher ok we have lost the 6-7 year olds, thanks for showing us!
Bugscope Team sorry but we understand

Bugscope Team we should have put some bugs on too, but we weren't sure about that
Teacher Enjoy the sample!
Bugscope Team mrs. schaa, make sure to check out your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-071, all the chat and images are saved to that page
Bugscope Team thank you for sending us something different to look at. The CT image movie was fun to see

Teacher next year we study bugs so we will be in touch

Bugscope Team Mrs Schaa consider working with us again, and we will be glad to do this again with insects

Teacher We will!!!!! Thanks! Good-bye!

2:09pm
Bugscope Team nice session everyone, good bye!

School Name	Stratford CSD
School Homepage	www.stratford.k12.ia.us
Location	Moreno IA, US
Community	Rural
Type	Public

Subjects Taught	Tech
Grades Taught	Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade
Number of Students	125

Project Title	Owl s/Nighttime
Insects To Study	Owl Pellets
Project Description	We study Owls and Nighttime. Can we send you some of our owl pellets?

Session 2009-071 with Stratford CSD

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2009-11-17 13:00:00 from Moreno, IA, US