Connected on 2010-06-15 12:00:00
from North Plainfield, NJ, US
- 12:13 pm
- Bugscope Teamhi Lulu
- Bugscope Teamhi lulu
- Guesthi, i'm a teacher for HEAF, and I will be observing today's session
- Guestoh no!
- Bugscope Teamwe called and left them a message...
- Guestthat's too bad, i wanted to observe their session so that I know how to prep my students\
- Bugscope Teamso if we don't hear from them in 10 or 15 we may go ahead and postpone, try to reschedule
- Guestok
- Guesti'll hang out for a sec
- Bugscope TeamLulu if you'd like, because they're not on and we're all dressed up with no place to go, you may drive, try things out for yourself
- Bugscope TeamI just gave you control of the microscope
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have any questions
- Guestwow this is amazing
- Bugscope Teamthis is the pulvillus -- the pad of sticky setae on the forearm of the insect -- that helps the beetle stick to walls, etc.
- 12:18 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe forearm is broken up into 3 to 5 tarsi, or tarsomeres.
- Bugscope Teamthe claws are at the end
- Guesthow many species would you like us to send you for our session in July?
Bugscope Teamwhatever you would like, whatever best suits you -- we like small and more specialized insects, usually
- Bugscope Teamso you can cruise freely from here, and you can also click on any of the presets to have the microscope drive you to that place on the stub
- Bugscope Teamflies are good, mosquitoes, ticks, tiny beetles, ladybugs... earwigs are cool; wasps, ants, bees, small moths.
- Bugscope Teamif we get butterflies we put the body on, trim the wings down, put a piece of the wing on the stub so the kids can see the scales...
- Guestok, and how long should i let them dry out before i send them?
Bugscope Teamwhat I do is catch them, freeze them for a few days or more, then let them air dry 3 or 4 days
- Guestok sounds good
- 12:23 pm
- Bugscope Teamsome critters, like larger ants, may wake up again, but usually they die upon being frozen
- Guestoh that is good to know
- Bugscope Teamand send them in non-crushable containers, maybe loosely wrapped in Kleenex, once they're dry
- Guesti only froze mine for a day, so i will put them back in!
Bugscope Teamlikely that will be alright; it's just the very large ants that have confounded us
- Guestif i can't ID the insects myself, can you?
Bugscope Teamwe do our best...
- Guestok great
- Bugscope Teamall of the chat and images are saved to your member page and accessible later
- Guesthave teachers ever had their students do scavenger hunts?
- Guestto find body parts, etc
- Bugscope Teameach session is always a little different depending on the ages of the kids, whether there's a computer lab available, if you're projecting or using a smartboard, etc.
- 12:28 pm
- Bugscope Teamwell you can send the kids to collect the critters in the first place
- Guesti believe we will be using our computer lab
- Guesti am very excited, i think this is going to be great!
- Bugscope Teamit would be a little tricky to have them do a scavenger hunt during a session because each person would have to have control for a short period of time. but it could be done
- Bugscope Teamwe are particularly fond of sessions in which we get to chat with the kids -- answer their questions
- Bugscope Teamit is so much fun
- Guestthis is really amazing, thank you for letting me play around
- Bugscope Teambe sure and try clicking on a few presets if you have time
- Bugscope Teamcool!'
- Bugscope Teamthat took you to another place on the stub, from which you can explore if you wish
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eye and the proboscis, which is nicely coiled when it is not being used
- Bugscope Teamand lots of scales...
- Bugscope Teamyou can see one claw
- Bugscope Teamhexagons
- 12:34 pm
- Bugscope Teamthese are the ommatidia -- the individual facets of the compound eye
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the ant eye is less complex
- Guesthow long is a typical session?
Bugscope Team45 minutes to over an hour; sometimes a few classes will cycle through at 20 minute intervals
- Bugscope Teamwe share the microscope with people who are paying to use it for their research, so we cannot run this all of the time.
- Bugscope Teamyou are a good driver, Lulu
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually 2 to 4 or 5 of us here to answer questions on chat
- Guestactually, i am having a lot of fun -- this is pretty amazing
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamit's good for us -- you get to test, and we didn't waste the setup
- Bugscope Teamwe do not use the same sample twice; each session gets a new sample
- Bugscope Teamyou can focus up or down and see how that works...
- 12:39 pm
- Bugscope Teamif it gets worse you go the other way
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- Bugscope Teamwe think of the electron microscope and the insects -- Bugscope -- as a sort of Trojan horse to get students interested in the possibility of science as a career option or just a path of study
- Guestmy class is actually a mix of science and writing. we will do a lot of science at the beginning but then we will be writing science fiction stories and creating 'superbugs'
- Bugscope Teamthat sounds great!
- Guestoh that's awesome
- Guestyea so this will be a great way for them to think about what a superbug would look like
- Bugscope Teamwe want them to see the bugs, and the gross stuff like stingers or a mite stuck to the eye of an earwig, and we want that to pique their interest, make them wonder why the images are in b&w, why the 'bugs' are so 'hairy,' and on and on. until they say 'is the microscope easy to use?' and 'what did you have to study in school to be able to do this?'
- 12:44 pm
- Bugscope Teamit's the most fun thing we do during a week
- Guesti can see why!
- Guestmy students will love this
- Bugscope Teamgreat!
- Guesti think i am going to sign off now, but this has been very helpful!
- Guestthank you!
- Bugscope Teamthank you!
- Bugscope Teamsee you soon
- Guestbye!
- Bugscope Teammaybe we will see you during another session!
- Bugscope Teambye!
