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BUGSCOPE
Shannon Cusick
Ant Head
This is a view of an ant’s head. It has been magnified on the
website 92 times. It has two antennae and in addition one visible
eye on its head. Its legs have three different sections to it. The
mouth is very intricate and has many parts to it including an overbite
“fang” look.
Ladybug Tenent Setae
This is a digital picture of a
ladybug’s tenent setae. This is
the hair-like structures on a
particular type of bug. These can
only be observed when looked at
extremely close as seen under
this microscope. These features
are sometimes used by bugs in
order to move themselves or also
for sensory purposed.
Ladybug Eye
This picture shows a ladybug’s eye/
Ladybugs have two compound eyes.
They are simple and have been
reported to be photoreceptors. This
means that these bugs can only
process light and see dark images.
In other words, they only see
shadows and are not able to see
colors.
Hand-drawn LADYBUG
My ladybug was drawn by hand to look like a typical friendly ladybug. It has
black spots with red wings. The head is black and it has no eyes other than its
antennae to feel. The wings are spread a bit with a black undertone in order to
show that there is a layer below the wings. The ladybug that I have drawn is
very different than that of the ones magnified in the pictures on “Bugscope”.
They are much more detailed and show the specific characteristics that are not
able to be seen necessarily by the human eye. My ladybug is that of a
children’s book and gives the impression to people of what they thing a typical
bug of this kind should look like. Although from a normal perception this may
be the case, if one looks closer, they will be able to see the vast differences
between a drawn and photographed, magnified bug.
NSES
I think that this particular lesson would most likely correlate with the NSES standard C. I think it would pertain
to the area regarding that of the characteristics of organisms. This lesson would prove to young children that
there is more than meets the eye. Their perception of insects at this point in their life (between the ages of K4) would be more likely to be false due to the information presented in books and just observing insects in
nature. Their misconceptions would be changed when they get to look at a closer observation of insects
through the use of Bugscope. They would learn that insects are actually much more than just friendly
creatures in books and understand that they have intricate parts as do we that can be seen when looked at in
depth.
It resembles the characteristics category as well based on the fast that “each animal and plant has different
structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have
distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking.” In addition, “the behavior of individual
organisms is influenced by internal cues and by external cues. Humans and other organisms have senses
that help them detect internal and external cues.” These standards come directly from the NSES and directly
correlate with the information that would support the concepts trying to be conveyed to the students. These
closer structures that are observed will demonstrate to the students the type of cues that insects will pick up
on in order to adapt to their environment or other outside sources that could potentially help or harm them.
The technology that is used in this experiment will be an accurate view of what a bug looks like close up from
multiple samples. If we used a regular microscope in the classroom and tried to do the experiment ourselves
we would not achieve the same results. If we did not get the same results, we would not be able to accurately
teach the children the differences between the surface and magnified views. The whole idea is to be able to
make the children aware of the idea that insects, like humans, have many parts some of which you cannot see
when just simply looking at it. We want to pull them away from thinking the insects have only the surface
characteristics and move them towards the idea that they too have complex structures.
Literature and Application
This piece of literature, The Grouchy Ladybug, gives a heart-felt story about a
ladybug that makes her way from a grouchy mood to a good mood. As a trade
book, it does its job to entertain children and provide them with an delightful
story while still teaching them. It acquaints them with not only a ladybug but
other bugs as well, making them aware of the different kinds of bugs that
interact with one another. It also teaches children the importance of manners
and maybe as far as positive attitudes. This book relates directly to the insect
that I drew for the Bugscope project.
This book, Backyard Bugs, has 80 pages of photos, specifically close-ups, to portray the real visual of
bugs to children. Robin Laughlin captures the colors and details of each bug. She manages to fit in
both everyday common bugs as well as more exotic bugs. There are also notes about the bugs
regarding their habitats and other fun information for children. This book gives pictures from a less
magnified view but still captures much of the detail.
This is a text that includes all of the information that students would need to know about insects from
basic to complex. It is the Insect Biology: A Textbook of Entomology book which has over 100 pages of
insects for those who are interested in this field or will study this field. I think this would be helpful for
the teacher in being able to give specific information about certain types of insects and what not to the
children. This book gives much detail about how to group insects and other information that could be
related to the bugs and details that one observes in Bugscope.
Bugscope is not just for science alone, a teacher could connect this particular experiment to other subjects as well.
Teachers could assign the students to complete a story about their particular bug that they drew prior to the Bugscope or
about one that was observed during the experiment for a literature piece. Teachers could also have students read a text
about particular bugs filling out a chart as they go about the characteristics of the bug. This would incorporate reading as
well as the idea of comprehension because of the chart.