Connected on 2010-11-12 11:00:00
from Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ, US
- 9:46 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- 10:05 am
- Bugscope Teamhi Karen!
- Bugscope TeamCate and Will are starting to make the presets for today's session, which starts at 11 our time.
- 10:11 am
- 10:16 am
- 10:22 am
- 10:30 am
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- 10:36 am
- Bugscope Teamgnarly ocelli
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll -- early
- Bugscope TeamHi Kristy!
- GuestHi.
- GuestAre you preparing for a class?
- Bugscope Teamwhere are you connecting from?
- 10:41 am
- GuestHuntsville, Alabama
- Bugscope Teamyes this is for the 11 a.m. our time connection with Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ.
- Bugscope Teamlet us know if you would like to drive for a few minutes before they log on
- GuestI am an education specialist from NASA.
- Bugscope Teamwe're in Central time, here in Illinois
- Bugscope TeamCool. I gave you control of the 'scope
- GuestI will be explaining this software to teachers in a few weeks so I was trying to find out more.
- Guestthanks!
- Bugscope Teamthe presets are on the left. you can click on any one of those if you'd like the 'scope to drive you to that place
- Bugscope Teamof course you're on it already
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any questions
- Bugscope Teamthis is our third user interface in 11+ years
- Guestwhat buttons should I click. The ones at the top?
- GuestCool!!
- Bugscope Teamfocus is up and down -- if it gets worse go the other way
- Bugscope Teamso yes the ones on top; and if you want to move the sample, click on the screen and the 'scope will center on that area
- Bugscope Teamwe had Click to Drive for a long time, but it was easy for someone to run off of the stage
- Guestcan I move to another spot on the bug?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- 10:46 am
- Bugscope Teamit's easiest if you go to the lowest mag and then click toward the bottom of the image
- Bugscope Teamthe 'scope will update to the area you've clicked on
- GuestThat is not working for me??
- Guestit is now!
- Bugscope Teamgood!
- Bugscope Teamtry clicking once on a particular feature
- Bugscope Teamyou can take the mag up once you find something that looks interesting
- Bugscope Teamit's set up so that students can log on and ask us questions via chat, and we can confer control to them if there teacher lets us
- Bugscope Teamoops their teacher
- Bugscope Teamthe presets are physical locations we've highlighted
- 10:52 am
- GuestThis is helpful so that I can explain how it works to teachers that may be interested.
Bugscope TeamCool!
- TeacherHi again!
- Bugscope TeamGood morning, Ms J!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome back!
- Bugscope Teamhi Ms. J
- Bugscope TeamKristy -- Ms J has been working with us for I think 10 years.
- TeacherYes, we've been doing this FOREVER!
- TeacherSo, hopefully our specimens arrived safely. Kids are looking forward to it!
Bugscope Teamyes we will be looking at them today, or atleast what I could fit on the stub
- Bugscope TeamMs J you are the supreme ruler -- you may start as soon as you're ready.
- 10:57 am
- TeacherDifferent interface this year...is there any way to get everything to "fit?" Looks like some text is cut off. I'm using Firefox.
Bugscope Teamyou can scroll down to see the older text; does that work for you?
- GuestThat's great Ms. J.
- TeacherWhoops...lost in translation, I mean the "sides of the screen, I'm not seeing everything, like the photos and the text on the right.
Bugscope Teamwe have it set up so that you can move to the left to see the presets, and then back to the main screen; and to the right you can move to see who's logged on
- TeacherWhoops, again. I now understand the blue arrows!
- TeacherI like that you can see all the presets at once. Makes things a lot easier than in the past.
- Bugscope Teamit's definitely different now, but we like it. you can see that it needs some tweaks, like the scale bar and letting you know where you are ("Currently near the").
- Bugscope Teamif you click on "More Info," you should see all of the microscope parameters, but presently it's not getting the mag from the 'scope.
- 11:02 am
- GuestHow often do you partcipate Ms. J.?
Bugscope TeamI think she connects once a year -- I don't recall if we do multiple classes with her.
- TeacherWe participate once a year...and have since 2002, so it's our 9th year.
- Bugscope TeamKristy every session is different; sometimes the students log on from a computer lab, sometimes the class uses a SmartBoard, sometimes the session is projected on a screen and there are one or two control/chat computers...
- TeacherWe're going to have about 75 kids or so for the hour. Some teachers asked if we could wind down about 10-15 minutes early b/c of schedules. So, maybe a 45 minute session or so?
Bugscope Teamhey no problem
- TeacherRight now, we're projecting in our school's auditorium. It's very cool to see the bugs BIG.
- Bugscope Teamwow totally cool
- Bugscope TeamMs J -- Kristy is an education specialist from NASA who dropped in to check things out today.
- TeacherAnything specific? We're more than happy to share our experience over the years with you.
- GuestMs. J. and Scot I'd love to contact you about your experience.
Bugscope Teamsjrobin@illinois.edu and Cate is ctopha2@illinois.edu
Bugscope Team217 265 5071
- 11:08 am
- TeacherStudents are coming in. WE'll be starting soon.
- Bugscope TeamMs J be sure to let us know if you have any trouble getting going today, and be sure of course to let us know when anyone has questions
- GuestI am going to share what bugscope is in a few weeks with teachers. I would just like to find out what you do and how you have used it.
- TeacherThe fifth graders say "hi!"
- Bugscope Teamhi everyone!
- Bugscope TeamHi! This is the head of a moth, and you can see its compound eyes as well as its coiled proboscis
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherWe're taking a look at hte stinkbug.
- TeacherSo, what are we looking at?
- 11:13 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a moth
- Bugscope Teamwe are looking at the compound eye in the middle
- Bugscope Teamthis is the moth head, and almost in the middle of where we're looking now we see one of the compound eye, which has thousands of facets
- Bugscope Teamto the left of the screen you can see the curled up proboscis
- Bugscope Teamthe facets of the eye are called ommatidia, and each functions like a tiny lens
- Bugscope Teamall the "hairy stuff" you see are actually scales
- Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes you would have very good peripheral vision
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see that the ommatidia, behind the setae we see now, are hexagonal
- Bugscope Teamwe are up close, and the setae in front of the eye are charging up in the electron beam -- it makes them move around
- Bugscope Teamthis is the wasp's stinger
- 11:19 am
- Bugscope Teamit may not look very sharp, but as a lot of you know, they feel sharp enough when they go into our skin!
- Bugscope Teamand here you can see a couple of different kinds of pollen
- Bugscope Teamhere's some pollen grains (the spikey balls are one kind)
- Bugscope Teamwasps can sting repeatedly, and we could see that the stinger did not have barbs on it that would keep it stuck in your skin
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the thorax, which is the 'trunk' or main body section of an insect; it's what the six legs come out of
- Bugscope Teamthe segments toward the end of the legs are called 'tarsi,' and here you can see one of the claws
- Teacherwhat's the hairy stuff called?
Bugscope Teamsome of what look like hairs to us are 'setae,' pronounced see-tee
- 11:24 am
- Bugscope Teamwe can also see some fungal hyphae, which are the 'branches' of mold
- Bugscope Teamthese were on the leaf you sent us
- Teacherwe didn't even know they were bugs on the leaf.
- Bugscope Teamthis sample is charging up in the electron beam, but we were excited to be able to show it to you since it has these tiny mites on it
- TeacherDo we know the magnification x?
Bugscope Team1100x
- Bugscope Teamthis is about the limit of magnification of a light microscope
- Bugscope Teamthe body is shriveled...
- Bugscope Teamthis is the wasp's head, of course
- Bugscope Teamwe usually look at the underside of the insects. They have more interesting features than their backs
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that one of the antennae is broken
- Bugscope Teamand you can compare the compound eyes to those of the moth -- these wrap around the space next to the antennae
- Teacherwhat are the "things" sicking out of the head?
Bugscope Teamthose are the antennae
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the mandibles -- the jaws -- as well.
- Bugscope Teamthe mandibles open from side to side, unlike ours
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- 11:29 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eye to the right, now
- Teacherare those pores next to the eye?
- Bugscope Teamthey do look like tiny pores
- Bugscope Teamthe eye is to the right and next to those are some setae (bug hairs) that do come out of pores
- Bugscope Teamnice job focussing!
- Bugscope Teamthere might be some other type of pores as well
- Bugscope Teami'm not sure what they are for, maybe some hair got scraped off
- Teacherwhat is the scientific name for the "nose next to the eyes?
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin like we do -- they have an 'exoskeleon,' meaning that they have their skeletal support on the outside of the body
- Bugscope Teamone part is the 'frons'
- Bugscope TeamI'm not sure if that was the frons or the clypeus
- Bugscope Teamthe rolypoly has compound eyes as well but there are very few ommatidia, and they are a little harder to find
- Bugscope Teamrolypolies are crustaceans -- they're not insects
- Teacheris there a leg missing from the roly poly?
Bugscope Teamyes. It either fell off in transit or I did it while trying to put it on the stub today
- Bugscope Teaminsects can get very brittle when they dry
- 11:34 am
- Bugscope Teamrolypolies have 7 sets of legs
- Teacherwhy do the legs curl up when they are dead?
Bugscope Teamwhen it dies and dries, the tendons that are responsible for flexing he legs get dry and tight, causing the legs to curl in
- Bugscope Teamhere's a crane fly and all the legs fell off before I touched it, so don't blame me!!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the mouth, pointing toward us
- Bugscope Teamyou can see where the background is different there -- it's where Cate put silver paint down to help get the insects to stick, and also to ground them to the stub we're looking at
- 11:39 am
- Bugscope Teameverything we see today is inside the vacuum chamber of an electron microscope -- all of the samples you sent us
- Bugscope Teamit's a scanning electron microscope, and it works by moving an electron beam repeatedly over the area we see; secondary electrons come back from that area and give us the image we see as signal, in tones of grey from black to white
- Teacherare these like the setae from the other bugs?
Bugscope Teamthese are a little different; they may help the stinkbug absorb the 'stink,' which it does not like anymore than anything else does.
- Bugscope Teamstink bugs are 'true bugs,' and they all have piercing mouthparts like this
- Teacherwhere does the stink come from ?
Bugscope Teamif you bother a stinkbug, you can watch as it produces a droplet of liquid from its abdomen; it comes from glands inside of the abdomen
- 11:44 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the little dome-like compound eyes here, and you can see the proboscis, which looks like a bent stick
- Teacherthey aren't native, right?
Bugscope Teamthey are said to be from Asia, but there are many species; I'm not sure they all come from Asia
- Bugscope Teamthe brown marmorated stink bug was only recently introduced to our continent
- Bugscope Teamstink bugs can be found all over North America, and some stink bugs are predators themselves
- TeacherIs that a shell on the grasshopper?
Bugscope Teamthat's its back plate, kind of works like a shell
- Bugscope TeamCate told me I was wrong about the origin of the stink bug 'scent.' It is said to come from glands on the dorsal side (the top) of the abdomen, and from the underside (the ventral side) of the thorax.
- 11:49 am
- TeacherOK, we're going to be wrapping up right now. I'm going to surf around a bit and gather some more images.
- Bugscope Teamwhen I was bothering the stink bug on my screen door, I imagine the stink fluid ran down its body to form the bubble I saw.
- Bugscope Teamsure. Thanks for all your attention everybody!
- TeacherThe students say, "Thank You!"
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the housefly's mouth
- Bugscope Teamin many flies, if the eyes are far apart they are females, like this, and if they are close together, sometimes almost touching, they are males
- Bugscope Teampretty ommatidia
- Teacherjust wondering what the ommatidia were made of?
- Bugscope Teamthey are made of chitin, I think, on the outside. some of them, when we see a broken one, seem to have a crystalline lens inside
- Teachertoo far in!
- 11:55 am
- Bugscope Teamsometimes at high mag we charge the sample up with electrons
- TeacherStudents are gone. How much longer do I have to take some pictures?
Bugscope Teamyou can take another half hour if you'd like
- TeacherThanks!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ocellus
- Teacherwhat is that?
- Bugscope Teamactually you could see all three of them
- Bugscope Teamthe three 'simple' eyes on the top of the head
- Teacherthree eyes?
- Bugscope Teamthey detect light but don't focus it
- Teacherwow...that's pretty cool.
- 12:00 pm
- Bugscope Teamyes so they have a total of five eyes, including the compound eyes with all of their facets
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli help the insect maintain its sense of direction with respect to the sun
- TeacherWow, almost couldn't find the legs on this scale bug.
- Bugscope Teamthis is just weird -- something we've not seen before
- Bugscope Teamactually there are a lot of things, still, that we don't understand about insects. but that is pretty cool.
- Teacherwhere are its parts? It just looks like a big mass.
Bugscope Teamreally I am not sure.
- Bugscope Team'adult females are almost always immobile and permanently attached to the plant they have parasitized.'
- Bugscope Teamthe little ones are called 'crawlers'
- TeacherWow. Guess that explains it.
- 12:05 pm
- Bugscope TeamI think it explains the disparity in size we saw.
- Bugscope Teammold spores are similar but less spikey, and they often collapse when they dry
- Bugscope TeamI'm sitting at the 'scope and can make little tweaks to the focus.
- TeacherThe kids were amazed by the pollen.
Bugscope Teamcool! sometimes we look at bees with no pollen to bee found on them'
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the antennae, up close of course
- Teacherwhat is this stuff?
- Bugscope Teamthe placoid sensilla -- the long oval things -- we think are chemoreceptors, as well as those pointy things with pores in the tips
- 12:10 pm
- Bugscope Teamcentipedes are said to have poison glands in the last few segments, and we were thinking that is what these are
- TeacherOr airplane windows.
- Bugscope Teamoh yeah -- or that!
- Bugscope Teamthe more you do this, sometimes the less sure of yourself you are; there are so many variations in insects and arthropods
- Bugscope Teamthe little oval things lower middle, at the edge of the image, are mold spores -- yo can see really only one
- Bugscope Teammale scale insects are said to closely resemble flies (Diptera) but not to have halteres.
- Bugscope Teamhere we see microsetae on the wing surface
- TeacherJust a few more images and then I'll be signing off.
- Bugscope Teamand here we see the tenent setae that help many insects stick to vertical surfaces
- 12:15 pm
- Bugscope Teamusually they're found on a pad called the 'pulvillus.'
- Bugscope Teamlike tiny cobras
- Teachercurious how the fly differs from the ladybug.
Bugscope Teamyes and in different areas they may be different as well
- Bugscope Teamand many claws open and close via control by a tendon called an unguitractor, but this looks more like a grappling hook (on the ladybug...)
- TeacherJust comparing the different claws
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the kind that I believe can open and close
- Bugscope Teamyou've been with us since we had an observer, a controller, and a chat box, and Daniel and I did most of the sessions.
- Teachera spiracle?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamlots of dirt/juju
- 12:21 pm
- TeacherOK, I think we're all set here in Ho-Ho-Kus. I have a class to get to! Thank you so much for everything over the past years. This is such a wonderful program.
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year!
- TeacherDefinitely! Have a good weekend!
- Bugscope Teamyou too! (this is Scott)
- Bugscope TeamKaren, Kristy, Julie, Sam, Rachel and Rudy please let me know if you have questions. or would like to drive.
- TeacherSigning off!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope TeamIf no one is interested I may go ahead and shut down here.
- Bugscope Teamalright, time to get some food... Thank You!