Connected on 2014-12-10 14:00:00
from Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States
- 1:00 pm
- Bugscope Teamsample is in 'scope and pumping down
- 1:12 pm
- 1:17 pm
- 1:22 pm
- 1:28 pm
- 1:34 pm
- 1:40 pm
- 1:47 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll!
- Bugscope Teambe right back!
- 1:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamalright, we are good to go for sure
- 2:01 pm
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherHello we are Zarrow
- Bugscope TeamThis is the tip of the rostrum of the wheelbug, and we can see that it is in a groove that it makes a scraping noise with.
- Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope and can make it drive to any of the presets shown on the lefthand screen
- Bugscope Teamalso, please let us know when anyone has any questions at all\
- TeacherWe are first and second graders. What is the rostrum?
Bugscope Teamthe rostrum is the tip of the piercing mouthpart of the wheelbug
- Bugscope Teamthe rostrum is is like a jackhammer, and wheelbugs are predators that feed on other insects
- Bugscope Teamthey have a half-wheel shape on their back, on the dorsal side
- TeacherWhy is it called the wheelbug?
Bugscope Teambecause on its back it has what looks like a half wheel, kind of like a stegosaurus does
- 2:06 pm
- TeacherDoes the wheel bug have wings?
Bugscope Teamyes when they become adults, like this one. they do not fly superwell
Bugscope Teamsuper well... they are kind of clumsy fliers
- TeacherWhat are the parts on the sides of that image?
Bugscope TeamDo you mean the little dots next to the insects? That is the carbon paper
Bugscope Teamto the left and the right on the head we see the eyes
- Bugscope Teamthis is really cool -- it is how the wheelbug makes noise
- Bugscope Teamand these are tenent setae, which are like hairs that help insects stick to surfaces
- TeacherThe image we are seeing now?
Bugscope Teamthey are setae, which look like hairs to us; these help the insect cling to things
- Bugscope TeamHello Benitez!
- Bugscope Teamthe leg is broken off just beyond where we are now
- StudentHello there!
- Bugscope Teamso this gives us a slightly better view of the setae
- Bugscope Teamthey are comparable to the tiny setae that geckos have on their little hands
- 2:11 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe sample moved after we made that preset
- TeacherWe also wonder what a ventrum is
- TeacherWe had a question on why the bugs have to be dried out for the microscope.
Bugscope Teamthe specimen chamber of the microscope needs to be under vacuum so we can beam electrons at the samples and also collect electrons back from the samples that make the images we see here. if there was no vacuum in the chamber it would be like trying to turn on a lightbulb that was broken
- Bugscope Teamif the bugs in the microscope were wet, we could not get a good enough vacuum in the specimen chamber to see the samples
- Bugscope Teamalso the samples must be coated with gold-palladium -- a metal alloy that in this case is very thin -- to make them conductive so we can get good images like this
- 2:17 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe see only black and white, gray scale images because we are not using light; rather, we are using electrons, which are super small and do not have color\
- TeacherWhat are the spiky-things called on the pollen, and what is a ventrum?
Bugscope Teamthey might be called spikes, or spines; the ventrum is the underside
Bugscope Teamyou know how a shark has a dorsal fin that we can see when it swims close to the surface? the top side of the shark is called the dorsum, and the bottom side is called the ventrum. that works with insects as well
- TeacherWhat eats the wheelbug?
Bugscope Teammaybe birds or mice, but it can produce bad smells, kind of like a stinkbug, if larger animals are bothering it.
Bugscope Teamthe wheelbug can also bite -- it can bite people!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the praying mantis
Bugscope TeamPraying mantids are the only insects that are capable of turning their heads to the left and right :)
- 2:22 pm
- TeacherWe had a question on how you dry the bugs out.
Bugscope Teamwe look for bugs that are recently dead, and we put them in open jars so the air will dry them out
Bugscope Teamsometimes we freeze bugs to kill them, and we also dry them the same way
- Bugscope Teamsometimes people send us bugs that live the early part of their lives under water. mosquitoes do that, and also caddisflies and stoneflies and many other insects
- Bugscope Teamthe larval stage, which is the same as the caterpillar stage, lives under water
Bugscope Teamin some insects
- TeacherWhy is it called the praying mantis? Sorry, we were having a discussion about your answers
Bugscope Teamit's called a praying mantis because when it is standing around it looks like it's praying
- Bugscope Teamthis is a larval insect, and we are looking at the underwater stage
- Bugscope Teamwhen we get insects that live underwater, we have to dry them a different way so they will not shrivel up like a worm
- 2:27 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe limbs that make the praying mantis look like it is praying are actually raptorial limbs that help it grasp its prey
- TeacherWas that one of the bugs we sent in? Which one was a stonefly?
Bugscope Teamthis is the stonefly larva; I am not sure if you sent this in or not (did you?)
Bugscope TeamCate made the sample, and she had to go rescue her kids this afternoon
- Bugscope Teamwhen we get to look at water insects, we find that sometimes they have cool creatures on them that also live in the water
- Bugscope Teamthis thing that looks like a guitar case is a diatom!
- Bugscope Teamdiatoms are single-celled algae (I think they're considered algae) that have silica shells -- like glass
Bugscope Teamyes I looked it up -- they are algae
- 2:33 pm
- TeacherWhy is it called the stonefly?
Bugscope TeamI am sorry -- I do not know why it is called that. I have been trying to find out!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of a rolypoly
- Bugscope Teamwe cannot see the facets of the compound eye very well - they are covered with some kind of film
- TeacherWhy are there bumps on the roly poly eye?
Bugscope Teamit looks like there are about 20 bumps, and each is a lens of the eye
- Bugscope Teamthe bumps themselves are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamwhen you look at the grasshopper compound eye you will see that it has many more ommatidia, and they are both hexagonal and flattened
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- 2:39 pm
- Bugscope Teamyay! this is the grasshopper's eye. the grasshopper's head is so big we could not see it at one time using the scanning electron microscope, which goes as low as only 37x.
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool because we can see the end of one of the mandibles (jaws)
- Bugscope Teampalps are the things that are flattened out like marshmallows, and insects use them to both taste and manipulate their food
- TeacherWhat is the palp?
Bugscope Teamthey are accessory mouthparts, little 'feelers' that help the insect eat
- TeacherWe had a question of why they look like feet in the picture?
Bugscope Teamthey do! often they look just like extra arms and legs, but insects usually have claws at the ends of their legs
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually two pairs of palps
Bugscope Teamsome insects have modified palps such as butterflies - their palps have become parts of their proboscis (drinking tube)
- 2:44 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is what an insect claw looks like -- it's an ant claw!
- TeacherWhat does the plier ant comb do?
Bugscope Teamit helps the plier ant keep its antennae clean, very much like we comb our hair
Bugscope Teamantennae are crucial things to have if you are an insect
- Bugscope Teamantennae have lots of chemoreceptors on them that allow ants and other insects to taste the chemical scents in the air and also by touch
- Bugscope Teamthis is a katydid wing that Cate mounted on the stub for us today
- Bugscope Teamif we look up close we will see that those little divisions are tiny low walls with spines on them
- Bugscope Teamsee the broken spine, on the right?
- Bugscope Teamso cool!
- TeacherYea, it is really cool!
- 2:49 pm
- TeacherWhy does it look like the wings are scales?
Bugscope Teamit's because many wings are are broken up into these small sections called cell - some reasons for amount of these cells may be wing size and use. However, scales can be lost or removed for escape purposes and don't cause any real physical damage to the insect and these wing sections if they are removed can eventually lead to an insect being un able to fly
- TeacherWhy do the wings have similar shapes as the grasshopper eye?
Bugscope Teamwe see that kind of geometric pattern often in nature, as in the shapes of the components of a wasp nest or hive
Bugscope Teameye facets are also hexagonal, and we think that is because it turns out to be the best shape for close-packing of objects that are essentially round into a dome
- TeacherCan we ask you some questions about being a scientist before we finish?
Bugscope TeamSure!
- TeacherWe love science, and we have some 1st and 2nd graders who want to be scientists when they grow up.
Bugscope TeamSweet!
Bugscope TeamWoo! Science is awesome :)
- 2:55 pm
- 3:00 pm
- TeacherAlso, what kind of tools do entomologists use?
Bugscope TeamAll types of tools, but it depends on what kind of entomologist you are, most entomologists use forceps, microscopes (all types), and a net
Bugscope TeamSome use computers for programing
Bugscope Teamit all depends on what your focus is. Chemisty, Molecular biology, ecology, etc...
- TeacherHow can we become a scientist?
Bugscope Teamone person we work with sometimes really loves mosquitoes, and she wrote a famous person who studies mosquitoes and asked if she could work in his lab
Bugscope Teambut most of us probably took a lot of science classes and had a lot of fun
Bugscope TeamThe main part about being a scientist is observing and asking questions! How does this happen? Why does it happen? etc
Bugscope TeamMost people are already amateur scientists :)
- TeacherWhat made you want to be a scientist?
Bugscope TeamI wanted to be able to use electron microscopes to look at things we cannot see with our eyes
Bugscope TeamI like it when the images come into focus
Bugscope TeamI like being out in nature
Bugscope TeamIn general though, I just find science very interesting and exciting. I have a degree in both chemistry anderntomology and I find ways to incorporate both fields at once. Additionally, I work on engineering projects as well because I like to design and build as well
- TeacherThank you, sorry, we have to go home from school. Science is awesome! We had lots of fun. Hopefully we can do this again. We liked spending time with you all.
Bugscope TeamThank You! This is super fun for us, and we enjoyed working with you!
- TeacherOne first grader said, "I wish we could do this every day!"
Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope Teamsee you next year!
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!
