Connected on 2009-05-13 10:00:00
from , NY, US
- 9:39 am
- Bugscope Teamhi mrs. b
- GuestGood morning! :) I am a teacher checking out the site from a school in Florida. What are these images of?
- Bugscope Teamright now we are looking at the mouth of an ant
- GuestThis is neat! How many in your class?
- Bugscope Teamwe also have a fly, a bumblebee, an earwig, a small cricket, a true bug, a dragonfly, and a lacewing
- GuestCool, I have been interested in doing this for awhile but haven't yet. Did you catch your specimens?
Bugscope Teamour entomologist, Annie, did the collecting of these insects
- Bugscope Teamthe 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 Teamwhen using click to drive, you have to remember to click again to stop
- Bugscope Teamyou can also jump to another insect by clicking on its picture in the presets section in the lower right
- 9:45 am
- GuestSorry, I walked to the next classroom to tell another teacher to check this out! :) She's coming.
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- GuestShe thinks it's great too! :) All of the information to sign up a class to use it is on your website, right?
- Bugscope Teamyes right on the website, and you can also ask us questions via email.
- Bugscope Teamyou can use a computer lab and get students to log on and chat here in this box, ask us questions
- 9:53 am
- GuestThis 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 TeamYes Kendra will work out a time with you and you'll get a message with your session number and password.
- Bugscope Teamour secretary will schedule a day and time that you request, or as close to it as possible that is acceptable to you
- GuestThis 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 Teamwe are victims of our own success, after 10 years, and there may not be time before June 4 that isn't taken...
- Bugscope Teamit's possible, but i'm not sure. you could always try. this is a busy time of the year
- GuestI 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 TeamActually Friday this week is open if you could work that soon.
- GuestThe 15th? What time?
- Bugscope Teamand there is a day available the week of May 25.
- 9:58 am
- GuestWhat is the max number of students available at a time?
- Bugscope TeamAnytime noon and after, so far.
- Bugscope Teamyou can have around 20 computers log in at once, any more and it can really lag
- Bugscope Teammore than 20 or so students sometimes slows things down, so we often ask to have them double up on a computer
- GuestI 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 Teamthe week of the 25th has an opening in it
- Guest20 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 Teamplease 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 Teamyes, and one person at a time can drive the microscope
- Guestokay, 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 Teamwe can confer control to participants of your choice or leave control in your hands
- Bugscope Teamusually an hour, sometimes two
- GuestOkay, 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.
- 10:03 am
- GuestThank 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 Teamsee you soon@
- Bugscope Team!
- Bugscope Teamcool you are on tentatively Friday, 12 to 1
- GuestThank you so much! :) Have a great day! :)
- 10:19 am
- GuestI am the teacher but my password did not work?
- Bugscope TeamGood morning, Rita!
- Bugscope Teamthe password is all lower case
- Bugscope Teamwe just gave you control
- Bugscope Teamyes if you want you can log out and back in quickly using all lowercase and it should work, but either way is fine
- Bugscope Teamnow you can drive if you would like
- GuestIt did not work lowercase so I just logged in as a guest
- Bugscope Teamwell you are resourceful
- Bugscope Teamyou can choose from among the presets if you'd like -- that will move you to another position on the stub
- 10:25 am
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Guesthi
- Guesthi
- Guesthey
- GuestGood Morning
- Guesthello
- Bugscope TeamHello and good morning
- GuestWhat kind of bug is this
Bugscope Teamwe are looking at a fly right now
- Guestwhat other bugs do you have
Bugscope Teamtoday we have a fly, an ant,, a bumblebee, an earwig, a cricket, a plant bug, a dragonfly, a lacewing, and a japanese beetle
- Guesthi
- GuestHI
- Guestwhat other bugs are we going to see
- Bugscope Teamsorry the 'scope is drifting out of control
- Guesthow powerful is this microscpope
- Guestwhat kind of bug is this
- GuestHow powerful is this microscope
- Guestdo you know what the biggest bug is
Bugscope TeamThe largest insect is called a titan beetle. It can be up to 17 cm long and it lives in the Amazon rainforest
- Guesthow powerful is this micro scope
- Bugscope TeamToday we have beetles, we have a lacewing, we have a fly and a bumblbee
- Guestwhat is an ant head
Bugscope Teamit's just a preset showing the head of an ant
- Bugscope Teamokay we should be back in gear now
- GuestHello from Cathedral School
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see the head of a fly -- can you see it now?
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Guestthank you
- 10:30 am
- Guestits pretty cool
- Bugscope TeamRita you can drive now. If you use click to drive, remember to click to stop or it'll just keep going
- Guestwhat is the smallest bug
Bugscope TeamThe 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 Teamcan you all see the fly now?
- Guestwoww
- GuestYes this is amazing
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see it has 2 compound eyes that are huge and take up most of the head
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eye is made up of many parts call ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamand in between some of those ommatidia are tiny hairs, called setae (see-tee)
- GuestWe are amazed right now...
- Bugscope Teamto the upper right we can barely just see one of the fly's antennae
- Bugscope Teamsometimes, with flies, the males' eyes are close together, and those of the female are far apart
- Bugscope Teamthis is the carbon doublestick tape on the stub
- Bugscope Teamthis is what we use to get the insects to stick down
- GuestOk that is funny let's try again
- Bugscope Teamif you would like to drive around, try taking the magnification as low as it will go
- Bugscope Teamat 618x it might be harder to find things on the stub
- 10:35 am
- Bugscope Teamha now we see someone
- Bugscope Teamthe fly is back!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that it is mounted on its dorsal side -- the ventral side is up
- GuestWe would like to see the feet and how it can walk on the ceiling
- Bugscope Teamthe ant is to the west
- Bugscope Teamclick on preset no. 15
- Bugscope Teamhey cool! this is one of its feet
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that it has two claws, and you can see those frilly setae
- Bugscope Teamthe setae are on a pad called the pulvillus
- GuestIs this sticky
- Bugscope Teamand the setae are specialized to let the fly stick to the ceiling
- Bugscope Teamtake the magnification up a little and you can see how they're shaped
- Bugscope Teamthey are sticky, but it may not be from a sticky liquid
- Bugscope Teamthey act like velcro or suction cups
- Bugscope Teamthe tenent setae are often shaped like little suction cups
- GuestWe are currently looking at all the presets
- Bugscope Teamha like Cate said ;)
- Bugscope Teamthis is the face of the earwig, and you can see its mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamthe jaws are the things with little forks at the ends
- 10:40 am
- Guestwhat does it eat
Bugscope TeamEarwigs eat plant matter, usually decomposing plant matter. They are sort of omnivorous/detrivorous.
- Guesthow does it live
Bugscope TeamIt hangs out under leaves and rocks and they come out at night to eat plants and rotten stuff.
- Bugscope Teamin insects the jaws open to the side unlike our jaws
- GuestHow big is it
Bugscope TeamAaron it is about a centimeter or so long
- Bugscope Teamyou often find earwigs in your garden, like at the base of tomato plants
- GuestWhat does it have in it
- Guestdo the hairs protect it in a way
Bugscope Teamthe hairs are sensory -- they have touch receptors, or taste receptors, or hot/cold sensing ability
- Bugscope Teamor under rocks
- Guestwhat country does it live in
Bugscope TeamEarwigs are found on every continent except Antarctica
- GuestDoes it have eyes
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ant
- Bugscope Teamyou can see one of its eyes, on the side of its head to the right
- Bugscope Teamthe 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
- Guesthow big is it
- Bugscope Teamthis is a relatively small ant
- Bugscope Teamit is several mm long
- GuestHow does it feel things
Bugscope Teamthe hairs it has are connected to nerves that are beneath the exoskeleton
- Guestt kind of ant is this
Bugscope TeamI am not sure. Ants are difficult for non-ant scientists to identify. And, I am not an ant scientist
- Guesthow big are the ants eys
Bugscope Teamants have much smaller eyes compared to flies because they live mostly in the ground so they rely more on their antennae for information
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae fit into the head using a ball-and-socket joint
- Guestwhat are those bumps on the face
- Bugscope Teamthis is the edge of the jaw
- 10:46 am
- Bugscope Teamthe bumps and ridges make the head a little more sturdy
- Guestare those hairs
Bugscope Teamthey are hairs, but we usually call them setae, or bristles
- Bugscope Teamdriving a $600,000 microscope
- GuestHow fast does an antn walk
Bugscope Teamnot very fast, probably about 10 cm a minute, depending on the size of the ant
- Bugscope Teamthe setae help the ant to sense its environment
- GuestI think I need drivers training
- Bugscope Teamthe bulb-like thing on the bottom of where we are looking now is the abdomen
- Bugscope TeamI thought you were doing quite well, not having had a chance to practice
- GuestThanks...you are being kind
- Bugscope TeamThe people who study ants and bees call the abdomen a gaster.
- Bugscope Teamgaster as in 'gastric,' which refers to the stomach
- Guesthow big is the microscope
Bugscope Teamthe microscope is a little bigger than a large desk, and the column, at one end, is tall
- Guesthow many of these microscopes are in the world
Bugscope Teamthere are probably a few hundred microscopes this good in the world
- 10:51 am
- GuestWhat do you use these for besides teaching
Bugscope Teamwe have students and professors come in and do their research on our microscopes. We also image samples for companies
- Bugscope Teamours has capabilities we don't use for Bugsscope, and there are fewer microscopes just like ours
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the images the microscope produces are in black and white -- in grey scale
- Guestwhy aren't they in color
- Bugscope Teamthe grey scale imaging is because we are not using light to collect the images we see
- Guestare those hairs
Bugscope TeamThe 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 Teamwe get the image as a signal, some parts dark and some parts light, as you see
- Bugscope Teamwe are hitting the sample with electrons, and other electrons are bouncing off and being collected we get a 3d image from those collected electrons
- 10:56 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can tell from this claw that this insect cannot climb on walls very easily
- Bugscope Teamyou don't often see crickets on walls because they don't have those tiny setae to help them stick
- Bugscope Teamthese are scales from a moth or butterfly, probably
- Bugscope Teamdragonflies eat other insects, and that may be how those scales got stuck to this one's eye
- Bugscope Teambutterflies, moths, silverfish, mosquitos, and a few other insects have scales
- 11:01 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a damselfly
- Guest what are those things on the eye
- Bugscope Teamoops thanks annie
- Bugscope Teamsee how the eye is round? it has great peripheral vision
- Bugscope TeamThey are in the same order ;)
- Bugscope Teamthe things on the eye were scales from the wings of a moth or butterfly, probably
- Bugscope Teamthat is charitable of you, Annie
- Bugscope Teamthis is silver paint on the tape
- Bugscope TeamThe 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 Teamwe 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 TeamThe fore and hind wings of damselflies are the same shape, while the fore and hind wings of dragonflies are different shapes
- Bugscope Teamfor the electron microscope to work we need to have the sample stage in a vacuum chamber, as now
- GuestSorry my driving is a bit off
- Bugscope TeamDamselflies are also usually smaller and thinner than dragonflies
- Bugscope Teamedge of the world!
- GuestTrying to get to what looked like the whole
- Guestwhat is it
- Bugscope Teamhey you found a pollen grain
- 11:06 am
- Bugscope Teamthe spiky ball in the middle is a grain of pollen
- GuestDid I say whole...gee I meant hole
- Bugscope Teamdid you want to see the pinhole in the thorax of the cricket?
- GuestI just explained how pollen floates in the air and they inhale it too
- GuestYes please drive us there
- Bugscope Teamlooks like we see the lining of one of the tracheae
- Bugscope Teamthe tubes through which air passes into the body via the spiracles
- Bugscope Teamthe tube is all mangled 'cause of the pin
- 11:11 am
- Bugscope Teamha cool
- Bugscope Teamdoes it look like anyone you know?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a true bug
- Guestan elaphant
Bugscope Teamit's proboscis is much like an elephant's trunk. That is how it eats food- it drinks the liquids from sap or sometimes blood
- Guestwhat does it eat
Bugscope TeamThis bug sucks juices from plants. It can transmit plant diseases, so this is considered a pest insect
- Bugscope Teamyes it has a sort of a trunk, doesn'
- Bugscope Teamt it?
- Bugscope Teaminside the proboscis, where we are looking now, it has muscles that help it pump liquids
- Bugscope Teamaphids have a snout like this
- GuestIs its cousin a misquotio?
Bugscope TeamNo, 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 TeamAll true bugs have sucking mouthparts like this.
- Bugscope Teamand its antennae
- 11:16 am
- Bugscope Teamit lost some of its legs after it died
- Bugscope Teamwhen they get dry they are very fragile
- Guestwhat kind of plant is it mostly found on
Bugscope TeamThese bugs are generalists. They will feed on many different types of plants. They especially like strawberries!
- Bugscope Team me too!
- Guestwhat is this on the bumblebee
- Bugscope Teamthis is a palp, and you can see that it has little setae sticking out of its tip
- Bugscope Teamthe palp is like a feeler that helps the bumblebee manipulate and taste its food
- GuestWhat does a palp do and what is it?
Bugscope Teamthere are mandibular and maxillary palps that should correspond with their position relative to the jaws
- Bugscope Teamit has little taste-buds on the end
- 11:22 am
- Bugscope Teamlike Scot said :)
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the tongue, which I think is called a glossa in a bee
- Bugscope Teami see a lot of dead bumblebees with their tongue sticking out it seems
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see where the palps are, and the tongue coming down from the whiter things below the jaws
- Guestthis does not look like a bee at all !!!!!
Bugscope TeamWe are looking very very close at the mouth
- Bugscope TeamI have noticed that too Cate, and I don't know why that is.
- Bugscope Teamtake the magnification down and see what it looks like up close
- Bugscope Teamoops I mean further away]
- GuestI have it at 51x
- Bugscope TeamPerhaps drive a little Northeast?
- Bugscope Teamoh sorry that is as far as we can go, isn't it?
- Bugscope Teamthat was me...
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the eyes
- Bugscope Teamgo to see what that stuff is on the eye to the left
- Bugscope Teamif you'd like
- GuestI have no controls
- 11:27 am
- Guestis that thing hanging down from the white thing a tongue
Bugscope Teamyes that was the tongue
- GuestMore pollen?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a different kind of pollen
- Guestwhat kind of pollen is this
Bugscope Teamwe don't know what kind of pollen it is; it is hard to tell
- Guestwhat kind of bee is this
Bugscope TeamThis is a bumblebee
- Bugscope TeamThere 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.
- GuestOur 4th grade class must leave now. We really appreciate your time.
- GuestThank You
- GuestTHANKS
- Guestthank you
- Bugscope TeamThank you all.
- Guestthanks alot i had tons of fun
- Guestthank you
- Bugscope TeamOh Thank You!
- Bugscope Teamthank you for all your questions and your interest with bugscope
- GuestThank you!
- Bugscope Teamplease consider connecting with us again
- Guestthank you very very much!!!!!!!!!!
- GuestThank you very very much for showing us these bugs.Ihad a lot of fun
- GuestThank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- GuestI am sorry for the confusion. We would have been more prepared if we had known it wasn't cancelled
- Guestyou all were great
- GuestI think that the 4th grade did pretty good without any prep on this.
- GuestThank you again
- Bugscope Teamwe are glad you could come online nonetheless
- Bugscope Teamhere is your session info, with the transcript and images: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-050/
- Bugscope Teamyou did a great job
- Guesti hope we can do this again
- Bugscope Teamsee you next time!
- GuestHave a great day and we will try to do this again next year
- 11:32 am
- Guestbye
- Guesthope you have agood day
- GuestGreat job
- GuestThanks Scot and Cate
- Bugscope TeamYay. Thank you!
- GuestI enjoyed driving the 600,000 microscope
- Bugscope Teamall right session is down