Session 2010-104 with Carl Wunsche Sr. High School

Application

The School

School Name	Carl Wunsche Sr. High School
School Homepage	http://academy.springisd.org
Location	Spring TX, US
Community	Suburban
Type	Public

The Class

Subjects Taught	Biotechnology
Grades Taught	10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Number of Students	45

The Project

Project Title	Real Life SEM
Insects To Study	< LEFT BLANK >
Project Description	I teach three levels of Biotechnology. The first level covers microscopy including electron microscopes. My students have looked at a lot of pictures from various microscopes. This project sounds like a wonderful way to get my kids to experience science for themselves. I think it is a great way to get my kids excited about science.

Miscellaneous

Where did you hear about Bugscope?

I heard about a similar program (or the same program) at NSTA. I googled for Classroom SEM and I came up with this project.

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2010-11-29 10:00:00 from Spring, TX, US

9:00am
Bugscope Team setting up
9:14am

9:19am

9:26am

9:32am

9:38am

9:45am

9:51am

9:56am

Bugscope Team we are almost ready!

Bugscope Team and we are ready!
Bugscope Team good morning!
Bugscope Team welcome to Bugscope!
10:02am
Bugscope Team this is our new interface
Teacher my class is just now changing. They should all be in a few mins.
Bugscope Team great!

Bugscope Team just past the claws themselves we see those structures that have tenent setae on them, which help the fly to cling to surfaces

10:07am

Bugscope Team you can select from any of the presets on the left (left arrow) to have the microscope move to that position

Bugscope Team good job with focus

Bugscope Team let us know if you have any problems, and also let us know when you or the students have questions, of course

10:12am

Bugscope Team that looks really good

Bugscope Team the mag at the microscope is 40,940x

Bugscope Team so the individual features are about 100 nm in diameter
Bugscope Team you are doing nanoscale imaging

Bugscope Team spiders have really cool-looking claws

Bugscope Team this is the underside of the beetle's head

10:17am

Bugscope Team eeeuw

Teacher can i look at a different part of the bug???
Bugscope Team go to a lower mag and then click on the screen at the lower edge to get the 'scope to move, incrementally, in that direction

Teacher thanks

Bugscope Team it's click to center, like we had before; we cut out the drive function because it was hard to use -- hard to stop
Bugscope Team looks like this guy was caught in a spider web

Bugscope Team yeah its legs have spider webbing all around them

10:23am
Bugscope Team some of the presets drifted since we made them

Bugscope Team I am at the 'scope trying to figure out where we were...

Bugscope Team the compound eye here is very nice looking

Bugscope Team this is a female mosquito's compound eye
Bugscope Team and now these little protozoans on the shell of the caddisfly larva, which lives underwater

Bugscope Team [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]kl+
Bugscope Team */-+9+
Bugscope Team *
Bugscope Team Sorry keyboard trouble

Bugscope Team this is cool

10:28am

Bugscope Team these little flattened structures make up the surface of the yellowjacket's tongue, which is probably called a 'glossa,' but I am not sure.
Bugscope Team the structures resemble the tenent setae we find on insect claws that help them stick to surfaces

Bugscope Team you can see poison pores here

Bugscope Team one of the fangs is now in the foreground, on the left
Bugscope Team you can use click to center, by clicking on the fang on the screen, to center it
Bugscope Team if you would like

10:33am

Bugscope Team insects have lots of tiny setae, like little hairs, that let them know when they are touching something. some of the setae can 'taste.'

Bugscope Team and some of the setae can sense hot/cold

Bugscope Team the setae are sensory, then, and they let the insect sense its surroundings through its exoskeleton

Bugscope Team spiders are similar; they have lots of setae that help them sense vibration.

10:38am

Bugscope Team some spiders also have what are called 'urticating hairs' that they can release into the nostrils of a dog, for example. The hairs irritate the dog's nostrils and cause it to leave the spider alone.

Bugscope Team you sent a nice wasp and bee, but sadly we couldnt find any pollen grains on the bee

Bugscope Team the thing that looks like a raspberry in the middle of the screen is the compound eye of the centipede.

Bugscope Team many of its legs are broken off

Bugscope Team the thing that looks like a leaf on the surface of the eye is a scale, perhaps from a butterfly
Bugscope Team silverfish have scales too
Bugscope Team this centipede was sent from a different school. It didn't fare well in the mail, but still creepy enough

10:44am

Bugscope Team here we can see a couple strands of silk -- web -- as well as the claw

Bugscope Team if a spider was caught in its own web it could eat the web to help it escape

Bugscope Team they are good recyclers

Bugscope Team some of the silk a spider spins is sticky, and some is not

Bugscope Team the silk is made of proteins, so if they get really hungry they can eat it as a last resort

10:49am

Bugscope Team ooh you can see the serrations where the claws cut into their prey
Bugscope Team the fangs are on either side, NW, and SE

Bugscope Team fangs, not claws...
10:54am
Teacher my class is changing again. Thank you we had a great time. my kids had a great time.
Bugscope Team Thank You, Claire!
Teacher we'll def. do this again next year.
Bugscope Team Is that it for today?
Bugscope Team thanks- hope they had a good time!
Teacher yep.
Teacher they did. thanks bye.
Bugscope Team Yay! We look forward to seeing you next year.
Bugscope Team Bye!