Bugscope Across The Curriculum By: Lauren Matzkin

Beetle Here is my hand drawn picture of a beetle, and a digital picture of a beetle.

Beetles There are over 350,000 known beetles in the world and new types of beetles are being discovered all the time. It is said that beetles make up at least 40% of all insects. They are not very picky when it comes to their habitats; Beetles can live in almost all types of habitats including in water. A few examples of places beetles may live are under tree barks, in leaf litter, on animal carcasses, in nests of other animals, in soil and under rocks, or in flowers all over the world. Beetles eat all different kinds of food, but mostly all of them eat seeds, fruit, wood, and plant parts. Some beetles are even predators on small animals. All female beetles mate and lay eggs. The egg becomes a larva. Eventually, the larva turns into a pupa, and then an adult beetle. Beetles are very interesting species. Did you know “fireflies” and “lightning bugs” are actually beetles? They glow in the dark to communicate!

What has changed from my first drawing? A lot has changed from the first drawing of a beetle I drew, until how I would draw it now. Bugscope has shown me that insects consist of so many tiny details that are not visible to the eye without closely viewing these insects with a microscope. Beetles are a lot more then just a circle-shaped bug and six legs. They are a lot more then they seem!

Observations During the Bugscope session we looked at a lot of interesting bugs and bug parts. I learned that the “spikey” things on bugs legs often help them to hold other insects or things in place so it is easier for them to feed on. We looked at a praying mantis head, and learned through our Bugscope session that they feed on reptiles, birds, and sometimes even other small mammals. The insects eyes up close looked like microphones or honey combs.

Bugscope Fly Eye Vs. Online Picture Clearly you can see how in depth the picture of the fly eye from bugscope is. It brings what we think a fly’s eye looks like to a whole new level. Bugscope goes into very strict detail, and it seems it is the most efficient website when you want to look at a bug or part of a bug in a closer view.

Bugscope Ant Vs. Online Ant Clearly one can immediately see the difference of the ant viewed with Bugscope and the ant from an online website. When one draws an ant it would appear like the one below, to the right. The details of an ant are so unique and without looking at this Bugscope picture, I would have never imagined its body to look like this up close.

Bugscope Moth Eye Vs. Online Moth Eye I noticed many differences within these two pictures. The picture of the moth eye I found online was hard for me to even make out where the eye was. It is that fuzzy thing on top or the whole image? In the bugscope moth eye, it looks like a soccer ball. There is a distinct difference between these two pictures. The bugscop moth eye is a lot more detailed and it shows us how essential bugscop really is in understanding an insects real structure and its body parts.

Buscope Ladybug Antenna Vs. Online Ladybug Antenna In the online picture of a ladybug antenna, it just looks like two lines coming out of its head. However, the Bugscope picture of this shows us how many parts to a ladybug’s antenna there really is.

NSES attached to Bugscope Science and Technology CONTENT STANDARD E: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop ･ Abilities of technological design ･ Understandings about science and technology Clearly this is attached to Bugscope because students are looking at bugs through an electron microscopes work and that is technology.

Authenticity and Bugscope Bugscope was very authentic because the class we dedicated to Bugscope also has to do with when we had to draw the picture of a bug a few weeks before, and also when we looked at bugs with microscopes. I would say Bugscope was not authentic if we randomly just hopped into it without doing anything else on bugs because it has to relate to the class lesson. However, I feel we dedicated enough time to bugs so Bugscope was of very large impact on our previous classes talking about bugs.

3 Literature Sources Charlotte's Web by E.B. White How to Know the Insects by H.E. Jaques Ways of the Six-Footed by Anna Botsford Comstock All of these books can be connected to Bugscope because they are books on bugs. After children read these books and see what kinds of illustrations of bugs are in them, they can compare them to real life images and not drawn pictures of bugs on Bugscope.

Bugscope & Other curricular Activities In a 5th grade class I can have the students each research a bug we will be viewing through Bugscope. They can present their bug to the class and the class can then form KWL’s before they experience Bugscope. The class can also write a short story about bugs and then participate in Bugscope and add to their story for there final draft. In the story, they can go into much stricter detail now about the bugs they viewed through the website, especially with their drawings and illustrations in the book.