Connected on 2011-10-19 12:30:00
from Randolph, North Carolina, United States
- 11:41 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are making the presets for today's Bugscope session
- 11:48 am
- 11:53 am
- 11:58 am
- 12:05 pm
- 12:11 pm
- 12:16 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are finished with the presets and ready to roll!
- 12:22 pm
- Bugscope TeamHello Ms M!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamI just switched computers and am sorry if I made you wait.
- Bugscope Teamplease let me know if you have any questions, right away or at any time.
- Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope right now
- Bugscope Teamthe screen to the left, if you click on the white arrow in the blue circle to the left, shows you the preset positions we just stored for today's session with your school.
- Bugscope Teamyou can click on any one of those presets, and the microscope will drive to that place. you'll then see that on the central screen above.
- 12:28 pm
- Teacherhello
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope Teamlet us know whenever you have questions
- Bugscope Teamplease
- Teacherok
- Bugscope Teamyou can change mag on the screen above using the controls across the top of the screen; you can also focus and change the contrast and brightness
- Bugscope Teamif you click on an element within the screen, the microscope will center that element
- Bugscope Teamthat means of course that if you go to low mag, you can drive the 'scope in a particular direction by using the click to center feature
- Bugscope Teambe sure and click on the one of the presets, to the left, once you have had enough of this area
- Bugscope Teamor take the mag down here, to see where you are on the spider
- 12:33 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that they're hexagonal, compared to the salt crystals, which form cubes
- Bugscope Teamalso please let me know if something does not respond properly
- Bugscope TeamSEM is at the microscope and can easily make changes for you, when you wish.
- Teacherhow do you zoom in
- Bugscope Teamclick on the plus sign at the top right of the viewing screen
- Bugscope Teamoops I mean top left
- Bugscope Teamjust above the image
- Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is some kind of raw sugar, kind of yellowy
- 12:38 pm
- Teacherwhat is this
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the Japanese beetle's claws
- Bugscope Teamthey're asymmetrical
- Bugscope Teaminsects have a head, a thorax, an abdomen, and six legs. they also often have a set of claws at the end of each leg
- Teachercan a japanes beetle's bug fly
Bugscope Teamyes it can!
- Teachercan you find it in the us
Bugscope Teamyes you can! these are from here in Illinois, from earlier in the summer
- Bugscope Teamthey have metallic green elytra -- the wing covers
- 12:43 pm
- Bugscope TeamI just moved us to the head.
- Teacheris those the hands
- Bugscope Teamthose things that look like submarine sandwiches are the tips of the antennae
- Bugscope Teamthey are lamellated antennae, meaning that they have layers, and they can fold open sideways, like a paper fan
- Teacherdo you have a tick
- Teacherwe can look at
- Bugscope Teamno I am sorry -- they are so cool to look at
- Bugscope Teamthe closest things to ticks in the 'scope now are mites
- Bugscope Teamhere are two, on the leg of an earwig
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that they are less than 200 micrometers long -- about a fifth of a millimeter long
- Teacherwhat is a mite
Bugscope Teammites are tiny creatures, I believe they are related to spiders, that often live on other small creatures like insects
- Teachercan you get sick from mite
- Bugscope Teampeople are said to have mites living in their eyelashes, but I have never seen them
- 12:48 pm
- Bugscope Teamand there are also dustmites, which live in pillows and bedclothes and eat flakes of hair
- Bugscope Teamdustmites are responsible some people's allergied
- Bugscope Teamoops allergies
- Teacherare they small?
Bugscope Teamthey are very small; you can barely see these
- Teacheris that the feet
Bugscope Teamthat is one of the legs of the earwig, and the mites are on that leg
- Teacheris that hair
Bugscope Teamthe tiny bristle-like things that look like hair are called setae, pronounced see-tee.
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not have bones on the insides of their bodies; they are invertebrates, which means they do not have backbones. but really, they do not have bones at all'
- Bugscope Teamoops
- Bugscope Teamso they have an exoskeleton -- a shell -- instead
- Teacherwere the eys at
Bugscope Teamyou can see them on the left and right
- 12:54 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the eyes, called a compound eye
- Bugscope Teamit has lots of individual facets, each called an ommatidium
- Teacherit look like a corn on the cob
Bugscope Teamyes it does!
- Bugscope Teameach of those facets (like the facets of a diamond) is a lens that gives the insect an image of its environment
- Bugscope Teamthe insect can tell very quickly when something changes, like when something is trying to grab it, because the eyes wrap around the head, and the images update quickly in the brain
- Bugscope Teamspiders, on the other hand, often have eight eyes but cannot see very well
- Bugscope Teamthe big things we see in front of the eyes are chelicers, or chelicerae. at the tips of the chelicerae are the fangs
- 12:59 pm
- Teacherwhat is ths
- Bugscope Teamnow we see just a few of the spider's eyes
- Bugscope Teamcan you tell what this is?
- Teacherwhat is that
- Bugscope Teamit's an ant
- Bugscope Teamvery small
- Bugscope Teamalmost all ants you see are females
- Teacherwhy is all of the ant females
- Bugscope Teamthe males have wings, and all they do is breed with a queen, at some point, and then they're pretty much worthless
- Bugscope Teamthe females do all of the work
- Bugscope Teamthe only other ant that may have wings is the queen, when she is young and flies out from the nest
- Bugscope Teamwhen she gets back the other ants pull her wings off, and she grows large, becoming an egg producer for the colony
- 1:05 pm
- Bugscope Teamants respond to chemical signals more than they use their eyes
- Bugscope Teamso if you take the scent of a dead ant and put a drop of that on a live ant, the ant workers who clean things up will throw the live ant away even if it is struggling, because it smells dead
- Teacherwhat is that
Bugscope Teamthis is one of those things that look like hairs, on the leg of the spider
- Bugscope Teaminsects and arthropods like spiders use the setae --- the hairs --- to get information about what is around them, like what is touching them, how hard the wind is blowing, whether something is hot or cold
- Bugscope Teamalso, some of the hairs are set up so that they can smell very faint scents in the air
- Bugscope Teamwe just saw the centipede head, and now we are looking at salt crystals from a Wendy's restaurant
- 1:10 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe sodium and chloride atoms in the salt form cubic crystals like this
- Bugscope Teamha but obviously not all of the crystals are cubes, here
- Bugscope Teamnormal salt does not have this cool incised look to it
- Bugscope Teamnormal salt is smooth, still cubic, but kind of boring
- Bugscope TeamI think this is cool.
- Teacherwhy do they have crevices
Bugscope Teamwe don't know for sure, but we think the crevices result from the company that made the salt having added an anticaking compound that keeps the salt from sticking to itself
- Bugscope Teamso cubes form, and often you see small cubes within the larger ones
- Teacheris horse salt the same thig as human salt
- Bugscope Teamyes it is also sodium chloride
- Teacherwhat is this
- Bugscope Teamsome salt, like for people and maybe for horses as well, has iodine added to it
- 1:15 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a centipede head
- Bugscope Teamsee its eyes, on either side of the head?
- Teachercan a human eat horse salt
Bugscope TeamI think so, but you wouldn't need much, and salt is not that good for you
- Teacherwhat is that
Bugscope Teamwe were just looking at the mandibles, which are what the centipede uses to bite
- Bugscope Teamin insects and arthropods like the centipede, the jaws usually open side to side, like a gate
- Bugscope Teamin people of course the jaws open up and down
- Bugscope Teamso your lower jaw is called a 'mandible,' and your upper jaw, part of your head, is called a 'maxilla.'
- Bugscope Teamsee the eyes on this centipede?
- Bugscope Teamthey're not very complex, and it likely cannot see very well
- 1:21 pm
- Bugscope Teamit almost certainly relies more on its sense of smell and ability to sense vibration (both senses come via the tiny setae, and especially those on the antennae) to get around in the world
- Teacherdo you have a pic of lice
Bugscope Teamwe have looked at them before, but I don't have one in the 'scope today
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2007-051/
- Teacherdo you have a bee
Bugscope Teamnot today!
- Bugscope TeamI am sorry -- we have a stinkbug in the microscope today, but it is all covered with hemolymph or some other kind of fluid
- Teacheris it oky to get off
- Bugscope Teamof course!
- Bugscope TeamThank you for connecting with us today!
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-082
- Bugscope Teambelow is the transcript of this session
- Bugscope Teamnext time we connect please be sure to ask for a bee, and a tick or louse
- 1:26 pm
- Teacheryour soo wellcome think u for working with us today u show us a good time
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamWhenever you have questions please feel free to write us.
- Bugscope Teamyou know you were driving a $600,000 electron microscope from your classroom
- Bugscope TeamBye!
