Session 2010-128 with Dar es Salaam International Academy

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2011-02-14 04:15:00 from Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

• 3:20am
• Bugscope Team pumping sample down...
• 3:27am
• Bugscope Team now waiting for the vacuum to get better; it is very close
• 3:38am

• 3:44am
• Bugscope Team and now making the presets for today's session

• 3:49am

• 3:55am

• 4:00am

• 4:06am

• Bugscope Team G6! Welcome to Bugscope!

• Bugscope Team there is a mosquito to the south of this roach that I have not made into a preset yet
• Bugscope Team I will drive us down there...
• Bugscope Team please in the meantime let me know if you have any questions!
• Teacher Hi
• Bugscope Team Hi! How are you?

• Bugscope Team this is the head of a male mosquito
• Teacher Good, grade 6 will join us in few minutes.
• Bugscope Team fantastic!
• 4:12am
• Bugscope Team the click beetle, here, is so ugly and dirty...
• Teacher I see many images in the preset, have to select or you will be leading us?
• Bugscope Team you control now, and please do select from among the presets
• Bugscope Team as you like
• Bugscope Team you should be able to click on one, and the 'scope will drive to that place
• Teacher Ok. Thanks. We will join you in few minutes.
• Bugscope Team cool

• Bugscope Team good morning, AB!
• Bugscope Team these are the spider's mouthparts
• Bugscope Team you can see one of the palps, to the upper left, and it is small, so this is likely a female spider
• 4:17am
• Bugscope Team in the center of where we're looking now you can see the fangs, tucked in
• Bugscope Team there are so many fine hairs that you cannot see the tips of the fangs
• Bugscope Team please let me know if you have any questions!
• Bugscope Team the teacher, G6, has control of the microscope
• Teacher Grade 6 says Hi !
• 4:23am
• Bugscope Team Hello! And Welcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope Team You are driving a scanning electron microscope from your classroom.
• Bugscope Team and presently we are looking at the mouthparts of a spider

• Bugscope Team and this, now, is the head of a male mosquito

• Bugscope Team you can see its compound eyes, and you can also see the base of the antenna
• Bugscope Team all of those globelike things are eye facets, called ommatidia

• Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes, you would be able to see more of what is around you without turning your head
• Teacher How many ommatidia they have?
• Bugscope Team that is one reason why they are often hard to catch
• Bugscope Team I think there are around 100 or so per compound eye
• 4:28am

• Bugscope Team mosquitoes also have scales, like moths, butterflies, and silverfish, as well as some weevils and beetles

• Teacher What are those bumps on the ommatida?
• Bugscope Team it's dirt, I'm sorry --- we didn't know how dirty it was until we got this close!
• Bugscope Team 20 microns is about 10 bacteria -- 10 rod-shaped bacteria -- end to end
• Bugscope Team so it is no problem seeing bacteria when they are on a sample
• Bugscope Team I am at the microscope and can easily do some of this higher magnification imaging
• 4:33am
• Teacher magnification looks cool
• Bugscope Team this is a close-up view of one of the ommatidia
• Bugscope Team we can see two of those globs of dirt, and we can see the fine features of the ommatidium
• Bugscope Team not all insects have these fine tiny features, which are perhaps 100 nanometers in diameter
• Bugscope Team you do see them on moth and butterfly eyes
• Bugscope Team be sure to select from among the other presets whenever you wish
• Bugscope Team the samples in the microscope are coated with gold-palladium to make them conductive, so that when we beam electrons at them they do not charge up
• Teacher We tried to select form presets but it ignores the request
  Bugscope Team let me know which one you would like -- I had that problem as well, earlier
• 4:38am
• Teacher millipede leg

• Bugscope Team I think the controls are slow today
• Bugscope Team the millipede is curled into a u-shape, and you can see that it is dirty as well
• Teacher yep
• Bugscope Team there is one of its tiny feet
• Teacher What are these brisstles like structure called?
• Bugscope Team they are called setae, often; also hairs, spines, trichae...
• Teacher what is the function?
• Bugscope Team insects and other comparable arthropods, like this millipede, are invertebrates -- they have no bones inside. so the tiny hairs are sensory
• Bugscope Team the hairs stick through the exoskeleton, and on the inside they are attached to nerves
• 4:43am
• Bugscope Team it is like if you were wearing armor all of the time -- you would not be able to feel what is touching your skin
• Bugscope Team so the tiny hairs -- the setae -- help you feel, and taste
• Bugscope Team some of the setae are chemosensory, some are mechanosensory, and some are thermosensory, so the arthropod can sense smell/taste, touch, and hot/cold

• Teacher what about wasp antenna?
  Bugscope Team it is loaded with chemoreceptors
• Teacher What are chemoreceptors?
• Bugscope Team wasps are related to ants, and to bees, and like many other insects they rely strongly on the ability to sense chemicals in the air, or that they touch
• Bugscope Team so chemoreceptors sense chemicals, or scents
• Bugscope Team sort of like your tastebuds
• Bugscope Team this is close up on one of the antennae
• 4:49am
• Bugscope Team when we get too close sometimes the image from the microscope is distorted
• Teacher wonderful1
• Bugscope Team insects use pheromones to attract each other, and also to send signals
• Bugscope Team pheromones are like perfume, in a way
• Bugscope Team now if we take the mag down we can see that we were on one of the segments of the antenna
• Bugscope Team ants rely on their antennae so much that some species do not even have eyes
• Bugscope Team the wasp resembles an ant but its eyes are much larger than those of most ants, and its antennae are a little different as well
• Bugscope Team you can see its mandibles -- its jaws
• Bugscope Team which are like a gate -- they open from side to side
• Bugscope Team that is like a tongue, below the mandibles, but it is hard to get it to focus
• 4:54am
• Bugscope Team even here at the microscope

• Bugscope Team the moth is covered with scales, much like the mosquito
• Bugscope Team scales are kind of like feathers, or shingles on a roof
• Bugscope Team they come off very easily, so when you rub the wing of a moth or butterfly, and it feels silky, those are the scales, which come off and are so small they feel/look like powder
• Bugscope Team if you were a butterfly or mosquito or moth or silverfish and you ran or flew into a spider web, you have a chance of escaping by leaving your scales and slipping away
• Bugscope Team the scales also give color to the wings
• 4:59am
• Bugscope Team this is the proboscis -- the coiled strawlike mouthpart of the moth
• Bugscope Team when the moth wants to feed on nectar from inside a flower it uncoils its proboscis and inserts it deep into the flower, where the nectar is
• Bugscope Team so here we are looking only at a section of the proboscis, and you can see scales to the right of it
• Teacher what are those bumps like structures?

• Bugscope Team on the proboscis? those were ridges that help the moth hold onto the inside of the flower as it hovers
• Teacher can we switch to spider spinnerettes?
  Bugscope Team yes!

• Bugscope Team if Spiderman had spinnerettes he would not be quite so attractive -- people would not want to be like him
• 5:04am
• Bugscope Team spiders have soft bodies, and when they die their abdomens, especially, shrivel up
• Teacher what are the functions of these spinnerettes?
• Bugscope Team there are four spinnerettes, usually, and they produce different kinds of web, which is also called silk
• Bugscope Team some of the web is sticky and some is not
• Bugscope Team if a spider gets caught in its own web it can eat its way out, and spiders do often eat their own web, recycling it in a way
• Bugscope Team the spinnerettes are like little spigots that produce web
• Bugscope Team spiders also have lots and lots of setae, and they are often 'plumose,' meaning that they are kind of like elongated Christmas trees
• Bugscope Team spiders often depend strongly on their ability to sense vibration, and the plumose setae help them do that
• 5:10am
• Bugscope Team some spiders also have what are called 'urticating hairs,' which they can release when they are bothered
• Bugscope Team urticating hairs make animals that are sniffing the spiders, for example, itch, and thus leave the spiders along
• Bugscope Team oops *alone* not along
• Bugscope Team most spiders feed by injecting their prey with venom that dissolves their insides. spiders are apparently unaffected by that venom, because they then suck up the dissolved internal contents of their prey like a milkshake
• Bugscope Team spiders can sense when another spider has bitten them, however, and when they feel the venom moving into a leg, for example, they can just let that leg fall off
• Teacher how effective is the venom on humans?
  Bugscope Team it depends on the spider. some of it is very bad, causing the tissue around the bite to die
• 5:16am
• Bugscope Team some spiders are very poisonous and can kill humans if they get enough venom into them
• Bugscope Team some just give you a swelling and an itchy area where they bit you
• Bugscope Team kind of like a big mosquito bite

• Teacher Its time up. We found it very interesting and learnt lot about insects. Thankyou so much. See you next year.
• Bugscope Team Thank You!
• Bugscope Team We will be happy to see you next year!
• Bugscope Team Thank You!
• Bugscope Team yes Thank You!
• Bugscope Team See you!
• Teacher Sure! Its one of the best activity we had in school.
• Bugscope Team sweet!
• Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-128
• Bugscope Team that is your member page, below
• 5:21am
• Bugscope Team see you!