Dar es Salaam International Academy
Session 2010-128

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Transcript

Connected on 2011-02-14 04:15:00 from Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

• 3:20 am
• Bugscope Teampumping sample down...
• 3:27 am
• Bugscope Teamnow waiting for the vacuum to get better; it is very close
• 3:38 am

• 3:44 am
• Bugscope Teamand now making the presets for today's session

• 3:49 am

• 3:55 am

• 4:00 am

• 4:06 am

• Bugscope TeamG6! Welcome to Bugscope!

• Bugscope Teamthere is a mosquito to the south of this roach that I have not made into a preset yet
• Bugscope TeamI will drive us down there...
• Bugscope Teamplease in the meantime let me know if you have any questions!
• TeacherHi
• Bugscope TeamHi! How are you?

• Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a male mosquito
• TeacherGood, grade 6 will join us in few minutes.
• Bugscope Teamfantastic!
• 4:12 am
• Bugscope Teamthe click beetle, here, is so ugly and dirty...
• TeacherI see many images in the preset, have to select or you will be leading us?
• Bugscope Teamyou control now, and please do select from among the presets
• Bugscope Teamas you like
• Bugscope Teamyou should be able to click on one, and the 'scope will drive to that place
• TeacherOk. Thanks. We will join you in few minutes.
• Bugscope Teamcool

• Bugscope Teamgood morning, AB!
• Bugscope Teamthese are the spider's mouthparts
• Bugscope Teamyou can see one of the palps, to the upper left, and it is small, so this is likely a female spider
• 4:17 am
• Bugscope Teamin the center of where we're looking now you can see the fangs, tucked in
• Bugscope Teamthere are so many fine hairs that you cannot see the tips of the fangs
• Bugscope Teamplease let me know if you have any questions!
• Bugscope Teamthe teacher, G6, has control of the microscope
• TeacherGrade 6 says Hi !
• 4:23 am
• Bugscope TeamHello! And Welcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope TeamYou are driving a scanning electron microscope from your classroom.
• Bugscope Teamand presently we are looking at the mouthparts of a spider

• Bugscope Teamand this, now, is the head of a male mosquito

• Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes, and you can also see the base of the antenna
• Bugscope Teamall of those globelike things are eye facets, called ommatidia

• Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes, you would be able to see more of what is around you without turning your head
• TeacherHow many ommatidia they have?
• Bugscope Teamthat is one reason why they are often hard to catch
• Bugscope TeamI think there are around 100 or so per compound eye
• 4:28 am

• Bugscope Teammosquitoes also have scales, like moths, butterflies, and silverfish, as well as some weevils and beetles

• TeacherWhat are those bumps on the ommatida?
• Bugscope Teamit's dirt, I'm sorry --- we didn't know how dirty it was until we got this close!
• Bugscope Team20 microns is about 10 bacteria -- 10 rod-shaped bacteria -- end to end
• Bugscope Teamso it is no problem seeing bacteria when they are on a sample
• Bugscope TeamI am at the microscope and can easily do some of this higher magnification imaging
• 4:33 am
• Teachermagnification looks cool
• Bugscope Teamthis is a close-up view of one of the ommatidia
• Bugscope Teamwe can see two of those globs of dirt, and we can see the fine features of the ommatidium
• Bugscope Teamnot all insects have these fine tiny features, which are perhaps 100 nanometers in diameter
• Bugscope Teamyou do see them on moth and butterfly eyes
• Bugscope Teambe sure to select from among the other presets whenever you wish
• Bugscope Teamthe samples in the microscope are coated with gold-palladium to make them conductive, so that when we beam electrons at them they do not charge up
• TeacherWe tried to select form presets but it ignores the request
  Bugscope Teamlet me know which one you would like -- I had that problem as well, earlier
• 4:38 am
• Teachermillipede leg

• Bugscope TeamI think the controls are slow today
• Bugscope Teamthe millipede is curled into a u-shape, and you can see that it is dirty as well
• Teacheryep
• Bugscope Teamthere is one of its tiny feet
• TeacherWhat are these brisstles like structure called?
• Bugscope Teamthey are called setae, often; also hairs, spines, trichae...
• Teacherwhat is the function?
• Bugscope Teaminsects and other comparable arthropods, like this millipede, are invertebrates -- they have no bones inside. so the tiny hairs are sensory
• Bugscope Teamthe hairs stick through the exoskeleton, and on the inside they are attached to nerves
• 4:43 am
• Bugscope Teamit is like if you were wearing armor all of the time -- you would not be able to feel what is touching your skin
• Bugscope Teamso the tiny hairs -- the setae -- help you feel, and taste
• Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are chemosensory, some are mechanosensory, and some are thermosensory, so the arthropod can sense smell/taste, touch, and hot/cold

• Teacherwhat about wasp antenna?
  Bugscope Teamit is loaded with chemoreceptors
• TeacherWhat are chemoreceptors?
• Bugscope Teamwasps are related to ants, and to bees, and like many other insects they rely strongly on the ability to sense chemicals in the air, or that they touch
• Bugscope Teamso chemoreceptors sense chemicals, or scents
• Bugscope Teamsort of like your tastebuds
• Bugscope Teamthis is close up on one of the antennae
• 4:49 am
• Bugscope Teamwhen we get too close sometimes the image from the microscope is distorted
• Teacherwonderful1
• Bugscope Teaminsects use pheromones to attract each other, and also to send signals
• Bugscope Teampheromones are like perfume, in a way
• Bugscope Teamnow if we take the mag down we can see that we were on one of the segments of the antenna
• Bugscope Teamants rely on their antennae so much that some species do not even have eyes
• Bugscope Teamthe wasp resembles an ant but its eyes are much larger than those of most ants, and its antennae are a little different as well
• Bugscope Teamyou can see its mandibles -- its jaws
• Bugscope Teamwhich are like a gate -- they open from side to side
• Bugscope Teamthat is like a tongue, below the mandibles, but it is hard to get it to focus
• 4:54 am
• Bugscope Teameven here at the microscope

• Bugscope Teamthe moth is covered with scales, much like the mosquito
• Bugscope Teamscales are kind of like feathers, or shingles on a roof
• Bugscope Teamthey come off very easily, so when you rub the wing of a moth or butterfly, and it feels silky, those are the scales, which come off and are so small they feel/look like powder
• Bugscope Teamif you were a butterfly or mosquito or moth or silverfish and you ran or flew into a spider web, you have a chance of escaping by leaving your scales and slipping away
• Bugscope Teamthe scales also give color to the wings
• 4:59 am
• Bugscope Teamthis is the proboscis -- the coiled strawlike mouthpart of the moth
• Bugscope Teamwhen the moth wants to feed on nectar from inside a flower it uncoils its proboscis and inserts it deep into the flower, where the nectar is
• Bugscope Teamso here we are looking only at a section of the proboscis, and you can see scales to the right of it
• Teacherwhat are those bumps like structures?

• Bugscope Teamon the proboscis? those were ridges that help the moth hold onto the inside of the flower as it hovers
• Teachercan we switch to spider spinnerettes?
  Bugscope Teamyes!

• Bugscope Teamif Spiderman had spinnerettes he would not be quite so attractive -- people would not want to be like him
• 5:04 am
• Bugscope Teamspiders have soft bodies, and when they die their abdomens, especially, shrivel up
• Teacherwhat are the functions of these spinnerettes?
• Bugscope Teamthere are four spinnerettes, usually, and they produce different kinds of web, which is also called silk
• Bugscope Teamsome of the web is sticky and some is not
• Bugscope Teamif a spider gets caught in its own web it can eat its way out, and spiders do often eat their own web, recycling it in a way
• Bugscope Teamthe spinnerettes are like little spigots that produce web
• Bugscope Teamspiders also have lots and lots of setae, and they are often 'plumose,' meaning that they are kind of like elongated Christmas trees
• Bugscope Teamspiders often depend strongly on their ability to sense vibration, and the plumose setae help them do that
• 5:10 am
• Bugscope Teamsome spiders also have what are called 'urticating hairs,' which they can release when they are bothered
• Bugscope Teamurticating hairs make animals that are sniffing the spiders, for example, itch, and thus leave the spiders along
• Bugscope Teamoops *alone* not along
• Bugscope Teammost spiders feed by injecting their prey with venom that dissolves their insides. spiders are apparently unaffected by that venom, because they then suck up the dissolved internal contents of their prey like a milkshake
• Bugscope Teamspiders can sense when another spider has bitten them, however, and when they feel the venom moving into a leg, for example, they can just let that leg fall off
• Teacherhow effective is the venom on humans?
  Bugscope Teamit depends on the spider. some of it is very bad, causing the tissue around the bite to die
• 5:16 am
• Bugscope Teamsome spiders are very poisonous and can kill humans if they get enough venom into them
• Bugscope Teamsome just give you a swelling and an itchy area where they bit you
• Bugscope Teamkind of like a big mosquito bite

• TeacherIts time up. We found it very interesting and learnt lot about insects. Thankyou so much. See you next year.
• Bugscope TeamThank You!
• Bugscope TeamWe will be happy to see you next year!
• Bugscope TeamThank You!
• Bugscope Teamyes Thank You!
• Bugscope TeamSee you!
• TeacherSure! Its one of the best activity we had in school.
• Bugscope Teamsweet!
• Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-128
• Bugscope Teamthat is your member page, below
• 5:21 am
• Bugscope Teamsee you!