Connected on 2011-11-22 08:00:00 from Greene, Georgia, United States
- 7:06am
- Bugscope Team good morning!
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- Bugscope Team we are scheduled to connect at 8 our time, 9 your time
- Bugscope Team but in the meantime please let us know if you have any questions
- 7:11am
- Bugscope Team you can see the sample in the chamber as it pumps down
- Bugscope Team this is the CCD camera -- infrared -- view of the chamber
- Bugscope Team in just a few minutes the vacuum will be good enough for us to turn on the electron beam, make some adjustments, and start finding presets for today's session
- Bugscope Team there's a large beetle, some flies, some small moths, maybe a tiny ant or two, a Mexican jumping bean and one of the moths that comes out of them, a spider, a mosquito...
- Bugscope Team almost ready to turn on the beam
- 7:20am
- 7:28am
- Teacher Good Morning! We are getting ready to join you! How do kids sign in as students and not guests?
- Bugscope Team sometimes signing up as students does not work, but signing up as guests will give them the same capabilities
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- 7:33am
- Teacher Okay - great! My kids are slowly coming in. We will get into our groups & get started in a moment!
- 7:38am
- 7:44am
- 7:50am
- Student Hellow
Bugscope Team Hello!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Student Glad to be in it
- Bugscope Team this is the face of a small spider
- Bugscope Team Yay!
- Bugscope Team you can see six of its eyes
- Bugscope Team in front you can see the bases of the chelicers, or chelicerae, which the fangs are attached to
- Student hey
Bugscope Team Hello Tyler321!
- Bugscope Team you can see right away that the spider is very hairy
- Bugscope Team those hairs, which we call 'setae,' are sensory -- most of them are likely vibration sensitive, giving the spider its ability to feel even very weak vibration
- Teacher We are having a couple of computer issues, but they are almost solved!
Bugscope Team totally cool. It happen here as well.
- 7:56am
- Bugscope Team insects are similar: they have mechanosensory setae, which are touch sensitive, like the whiskers of a cat or rat; they have chemosensory setae, which give them the ability to smell chemicals in the air, such as pheromones, which are like perfume to insects; and there are also thermosensory setae, which let the insects feel hot/cold.
- Bugscope Team when we see scales on a moth, butterfly, mosquito, or silverfish, those are actually modified setae as well.
- Bugscope Team insects and similar arthropods like spiders have an exoskeleton, which is like if you were wearing armor -- you would not be able to sense things that were touching your skin
- Teacher We are ready now.
Bugscope Team Cool!
- Bugscope Team This is the area where the spinnerettes are, and it is shriveled a bit, hard to tell just what is what.
- Student hello
- Bugscope Team in the very center you can see one of the spinnerettes that produce silk, or web
- Teacher What are all the hairy looking things?
Bugscope Team those are plumose setae
- Student hey
Bugscope Team Hello!
- Student hello
- Student what are the hairy thing
Bugscope Team those are plumose setae, sensitive to touch and to vibration
- Student iwant to kno
- Bugscope Team this is at the tip of the spider's abdomen
- Bugscope Team where the silk comes from -- the web
- Student What do all the hairy things do.
- Student i want to know that
- Student are those claws on the harry things?
Bugscope Team they're just bits of web curled over, but we can see some claws a little later
- 8:01am
- Student What is that in the middle?
Bugscope Team that is one of the actual silk producing tips
- Student bugscope is very interesting
- Student what part of the body is it
Bugscope Team the abdomen is the big round part of the spider, and this is the tip of it
- Student what is a setae?
Bugscope Team setae (see-tee) are the bristles or spines that look like hairs to us
- Bugscope Team singular of setae is seta
- Student thanks
- Student what are the thing that look like a carpet
Bugscope Team that is the surface of the abdomen, which is expandable
- Student what is thatwhat we are looking at can yall stop chaning the picture
- Bugscope Team be sure to try some of the other presets; there are a lot today. and let us know if you have any trouble
- Student we love bug scope
Bugscope Team Yay! Totally cool.
- Guest me to
Bugscope Team Thank you, Caleb!
- Student it is great
- Student This is cool!
- Bugscope Team okay you know when you stroke a butterfly's wings and it feels super soft and silky?
- Bugscope Team and tiny stuff like powder comes off of the wings?
- Student YEAH
- Bugscope Team that is what these things are that we are looking at now, but highly magnified
- Student why are the holes in it
Bugscope Team the holes are there to make them lighter
- Student there are such strange pictures
- 8:07am
- Student what do the scales do on the moth wing.
Bugscope Team one thing they do that is very helpful is to fall off when the moth, for example, flies into a spider web. if the scales stick, perhaps the moth can escape
- Student Whyare there holes in it
Bugscope Team the holes make the scales lighter in weight
- Student wow I never knew that
- Student how many holes are there
Bugscope Team there are thousands in just one tiny scale
- Bugscope Team the ridges we see refract light so that it comes back to our eyes in color
- Student What is that in the lower right?
Bugscope Team that is the tip of another scale; if you take the mag down a bit you can see
- Guest why does it have valleys. why is it not just 1 big thing
Bugscope Team the valleys form patterns that refract the light and make what are called structural colors
- Student is that a whole wing
Bugscope Team it's just a few tiny scales from a wing that would be huge compared to where we are now
- Student Why is it bumpy?
Bugscope Team the bumpiness likely helps make the scale a bit more rigid, like a Ruffles potato chip
- Bugscope Team now we can see that the scales have cool tips like leave
- Bugscope Team leaves from a tree
- Bugscope Team spider again!
- Bugscope Team let me know if you need any assistance driving, for example if the 'scope is not responding as you wish
- Bugscope Team you are driving a $600,000 scanning electron microscope from your classroom
- 8:12am
- Student this is very cool
- Student What are the four bumps in the middle for?
Bugscope Team those are eyes!
- Bugscope Team spiders often cannot see very well, although some can see quite well. but because most do not see well, it is important to have lots of setae
- Student what is the two bumps on the bottom?
Bugscope Team at the very bottom are the chelicerae, which the fangs are attached to
- Student awesome
- Student why are spiders hairy
Bugscope Team the hair is important because it helps them sense vibration, including sound, which is really just vibration in the air
- Student how many things can a spider see at once?
Bugscope Team it likely sees kid of like we do, but not as well; it would be like looking at eight TVs of the same thing at one time, but each having a camera pointed slightly differently
- Student I didn't know that. Is that the eyeball or the outside of the eye?
Bugscope Team it's the outside of the eye, and I guess it is the eyeball as well - they do not have eyelids
- Student why are 2 of the eyes bigger than 4
Bugscope Team they may work a bit better, and it is likely that they scare predators that see them
- Guest what happens if a spider does not have hair whan born
Bugscope Team it might be at a disadvantage, because it would not have a good ability to sense its environment
- Teacher We are going to move to the fly claw...
Bugscope Team cool!
- 8:18am
- Student how good are the spider's eyes
Bugscope Team usually they are not that good -- they sense motion and changes in light. but some spiders do see quite well
- Student why does a house fly have a claw?
Bugscope Team they use their claws kind of the same way we use our hands -- to help grasp things
- Bugscope Team the folded pad above the two 'tines' of the claw is called a pulvillus, and it has lots of sticky setae on it that help the fly cling to glass or to the ceiling
- Guest does the hair help it sense things like the spider
Bugscope Team it can, exactly; it just depends on which hairs they are
- Student how sharp is the claw
Bugscope Team we can see that it is fairly sharp, but it is so small you would hardly feel it
- Student what the thing that look like a nose
Bugscope Team that is the pulvilllus
- Student what is the housefly pulvillus
Bugscope Team it is a pad that had lots of sticky setae, called 'tenent setae,' on it. they help it cling to things
- Student What are those ponty things on the claw?
Bugscope Team those are the actual claws
- Student why does the fly look hairy
Bugscope Team it really is hairy
- Bugscope Team hairs, or setae, also called bristles and spines and trichae, and microsetae, and microtrichae, have various purposes
- 8:23am
- Student Are they brittle?
Bugscope Team the claws are pretty strong; the setae are flexible
- Student COOL
- Student what is the housefly eat
Bugscope Team they like sugary foods, and they eat by spitting saliva onto their food, then sucking up what the saliva dissolves
- Student thats is so cool
- Bugscope Team see how the tenent setae are flattened at the tips like tiny suction cups?
- Student This is fun!!!
Bugscope Team sweet
- Student what is the tentacul looking things?
- Teacher What is this?
Bugscope Team now we are looking a bit more closely at the pulvillus, and we can see how the fly can stick to the ceiling, for example
- Student what is the wormy stuff.
- Student what are all those pulvillus
Bugscope Team those are tenent setae --- 'tenent' is like the Spanish word 'tener,' which means to have or to hold
- Student What isa house fly related to?
Bugscope Team it is related to other flies and mosquitoes
- Guest what are the swirly things
Bugscope Team that is part of the pad that supports the setae
- 8:28am
- Teacher Can we see the image of the Housefly Claw 2? We are having trouble getting it there?
Bugscope Team ok!
- Student Its cool but its strange
Bugscope Team insects do a lot of the same things we do, but in a different way
- Student cool
- Teacher Thanks!
- Student what are those
Bugscope Team those were the spines on the tarsi, which is what the 'forearm' segments of the arm are
- Bugscope Team now we see the same thing we were looking at before, but this one is from the side
- Student your welcome
- Bugscope Team those big spikey things let the fly know when it is touching something
- Student cool
- Student Where's the mouth?
Bugscope Team your teacher should be able to drive you there, and if not I can do it
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye, below the antenna, of a huge black beetle
- Student is that an arm sticking out?
Bugscope Team that is the beetle's antenna
- Student what is that line going across eye
Bugscope Team that is the antenna, but it does resemble an arm, in a way
- Student Are beetles only black?
Bugscope Team they are almost all colors, and even this one is an iridescent red/purple in places
- 8:33am
- Guest the antenna is hairy on the end
Bugscope Team yes! those hairs help the beetle smell and sense touch and hot/cold as well
- Bugscope Team insects do not have noses, so they use some of their setae to help them smell and taste things
- Student what are thoes spikes
Bugscope Team they are sensory setae that help the beetle pick up cues about its environment
- Bugscope Team now we are up closer, and you can see that the spikes go into the antenna, where they are connected to nerves that transmit signals to the brain
- Student what is that
Bugscope Team this is one segment of the antenna
- Student what are the spikes?
Bugscope Team they are mechanosensory setae, and some are chemosensory, and some are thermosensory
- Bugscope Team insects are invertebrates, which means they do not have a backbone; but really they do not have bones at all. they have an exoskeleton, which means they have a kind or protective shell, like armor, on the outside
- 8:39am
- Bugscope Team the shell is made of chitin, and it is also called cuticle; it is like what our fingernails are made of
- Student sorry about that.
Bugscope Team hey no problem!
- Teacher We are having difficulty getting the Mexican Jumping Bean Moth over. Can you help
Bugscope Team me too! I will drive the 'scope directly instead
- Teacher Thanks!
- Student awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student Why does he have big eyes
Bugscope Team the big eyes help the moth see better -- collect more light -- in the dark
- Student whas that?
Bugscope Team this is a moth that came out of a Mexican jumping bean
- Student are his eyes bigger than its head
- Guest what is on his eyes
Bugscope Team those are loose scales
- Student Is that a head?
Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Student hey kolbe
- Student can you find these bugs around here in Georgia?
Bugscope Team you can find something very similar but I am not sure if you can find exactly the same little dudes.
- Student What are all those flakes?
Bugscope Team those are scales like what we were looking at up very close earlier
- 8:44am
- Student How do they bathe?
Bugscope Team they don't like water enough to completely immerse themselves in it; they have to use their limbs to wipe dirt off of themselves
- Student is that its eyes??
Bugscope Team yes those are compound eyes, with thousands of tiny facets called ommatidia
- Student why does it look like it has squares on it eyes?
Bugscope Team let's go look...
- Student wow
- Bugscope Team now we can see that they are --- uh what shape is this?
- Student Why does it look li
- Student it is a hexgon
Bugscope Team exactly! a hexagon!
- Student that looks like leaves
Bugscope Team those are loose scales
- Teacher I have a group now that wants to see the fruitfly...
Bugscope Team alright!
- Student cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student why does it have marks on it
Bugscope Team it is a little beat up, isn't it
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye, part of one, of the fruitfly.
- Bugscope Team it has little bristles on it that are said to help it sense wind speed and direction, which could be important if you were super small
- 8:50am
- Guest are those hairs
Bugscope Team yes they are another version of the same setae we have been seeing everywhere
- Student it looks like missles
Bugscope Team it does!
- Student why do we call it a fruitfly
Bugscope Team you find them hanging around fruit a lot, where they eat the fungus that often grow on fruit
- Student cool!!\
- Bugscope Team now we see more of its head, and to the top you can see what looks like one of the spider eyes we saw earlier
- Guest is that all they eat
Bugscope Team I am not sure -- that is what I have read. But I bet they are adaptable. We know what the larvae eat when we grow them in tubes.
- Student how many dots does it have on its eye
Bugscope Team they have several hundred, at least
- Student What's the ball on the top?
Bugscope Team that is a simple eye, called an ocellus; there are actually three of those
- Bugscope Team now you can see theat there are three ocelli
- Guest why do you grow them in tubes
Bugscope Team I used to grow them in tubes so I could feed them to baby frogs
- Bugscope Team oops sorry about the typo, below
- Bugscope Team ocelli help flying insects keep their sense of direction with respect to the sun
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team ocelli are kind of like many spider eyes -- they sense only dark and light
- 8:55am
- Teacher Can we see the mosquito?
Bugscope Team here goes!
- Student ahhh
- Bugscope Team ooh its compound eyes are shrunken
- Bugscope Team when it was alive they would have been all big and round like basketballs
- Bugscope Team this is a female
- Student how can you tell?
Bugscope Team I have seen them before...
- Bugscope Team oh how can you tell if they're female? by the antennae and by the presence of the stylet
- Student why do mosquitos drink people blood???????????
Bugscope Team blood is a very good source of protein. only the females bite and suck blood, and they want it badly because they need it to be able to lay their eggs
- Student do they only drink blood?
Bugscope Team the males drink nectar, sometimes, and I think the females can if they want to, but they do need blood to be able to lay their eggs successfully
- Teacher What is the thing that looks like it is coming out of his mouth?
Bugscope Team that is the proboscis. this one is a sheath that has the fascicle inside, which is the biting parts
- Student they dont just drink are blood
Bugscope Team a nimal blood as well, yes!
- 9:00am
- Student why does it need blood to lay there eggs?
Bugscope Team blood gives them enough protein; otherwise they do not have a good protein source
- Student I knew females drinked the blood but i didn't know it was for there eggs!
Bugscope Team ha Yeah!
- Student how many mosquito are there
Bugscope Team there are a few thousand species, I think
- Student wow
- Bugscope Team let's look up close at the tip of the proboscis
- Student what is that??
- Bugscope Team in the center you can see -- to the left a tiny bit, the very sharp edges of one of the stylets that sticks into your skin
- Student it looks real sharp and wierd!
- Student what colors can they be
Bugscope Team usually they are brown and gray, sometimes with white stripes, sometimes black, or blackish
- Student it looks like broken glass
- Student its cool
- Teacher We are almost out of time. Can we please see the aphid before we log off?
Bugscope Team aphids are tiny, and they have soft bodies, like dustmites, so they really shrivel up when they die
- Student what is that
- Student why is it so tiny?
Bugscope Team it's probably the most efficient way to be if you are going to be doing what they do, drinking plant juices
- 9:05am
- Student we really enjoyed. thanks
Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Student we had fun
Bugscope Team This is fun for us as well
- Student bye thaanks for everything sem and scott
Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Student thanks again
Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Student THANK YOU WE REALY INJOYED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student thanks for your time
Bugscope Team see you next year!
- Student THANK YOU IT WAS VERY FUN!!!!!!!!!!1
- Teacher We really learned a lot today! Thank you so much for your time and this experience.
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-146
- Student Thank you for your time and this was really fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student yep!!
- Student thanks sj sem and scott!!!!!!!!!!!! bye!!!!!
- Bugscope Team below is the link to your member page, which has a transcript and images on it
- Bugscope Team be sure to apply soon for next year, because we have been busy
- Bugscope Team lots of people are applying to work with us now
- Bugscope Team this was really fun for us
- Teacher We will!!
- Bugscope Team Bye!
