Carl Wunsche Sr. High School
Session 2010-104

Application

School

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

Class

Subjects	Biotechnology
Grades	10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Students	45

Project

Title	Real Life SEM
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.

Transcript

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

9:00 am
Bugscope Teamsetting up
9:14 am

9:19 am

9:26 am

9:32 am

9:38 am

9:45 am

9:51 am

9:56 am

Bugscope Teamwe are almost ready!

Bugscope Teamand we are ready!
Bugscope Teamgood morning!
Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
10:02 am
Bugscope Teamthis is our new interface
Teachermy class is just now changing. They should all be in a few mins.
Bugscope Teamgreat!

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

10:07 am

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

Bugscope Teamgood job with focus

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

10:12 am

Bugscope Teamthat looks really good

Bugscope Teamthe mag at the microscope is 40,940x

Bugscope Teamso the individual features are about 100 nm in diameter
Bugscope Teamyou are doing nanoscale imaging

Bugscope Teamspiders have really cool-looking claws

Bugscope Teamthis is the underside of the beetle's head

10:17 am

Bugscope Teameeeuw

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

Teacherthanks

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

Bugscope Teamyeah its legs have spider webbing all around them

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

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

Bugscope Teamthe compound eye here is very nice looking

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

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

Bugscope Teamthis is cool

10:28 am

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

Bugscope Teamyou can see poison pores here

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

10:33 am

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

Bugscope Teamand some of the setae can sense hot/cold

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

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

10:38 am

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

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

Bugscope Teammany of its legs are broken off

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

10:44 am

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

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

Bugscope Teamthey are good recyclers

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

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

10:49 am

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

Bugscope Teamfangs, not claws...
10:54 am
Teachermy class is changing again. Thank you we had a great time. my kids had a great time.
Bugscope TeamThank You, Claire!
Teacherwe'll def. do this again next year.
Bugscope TeamIs that it for today?
Bugscope Teamthanks- hope they had a good time!
Teacheryep.
Teacherthey did. thanks bye.
Bugscope TeamYay! We look forward to seeing you next year.
Bugscope TeamBye!