Kiddie Pool+Sloth+Microscope=Awesome
Labor Day was an appropriate day to empty out the kiddle pool on the back patio. It’s the end of the season, it had been filled for the better part of a week, nobody was playing in it (with the exception of a little bit of splashing on the part of one of the little Adeodatuses on Sunday evening), and the water had become dirty enough to reach Eyesore Status. When I went to pick up one side to dump it out, I noticed some little critters squiggling around in the water. Can you say microscope, kids? I knew you could.
We were up in the mountains doing Labor Day Things for most of the day, but upon our return I broke out the family microscope for an impromptu science lesson. (Lesson: these are mosquito larvae. They live in standing water. People normally think of swamps, not your kiddie pool. Gross, huh?) A few hours later, the kids in bed, I went to dump out the water at long last, when an idea struck me: digital camera.
Does that work? Can you just hold up the lens of the camera to the objective of the microscope and snap a picture? Oh, can you. Enjoy…
I took several videos. Please excuse the Windows Media format, but the free trial version of Ulead Video Studio 8.0 makes much smaller WMF files than it does MPEGs.
I have at least two more that are worth posting, but the little animated thumbnails are a pain! Watch this space during the weekend for more.
And for the stills:
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- Posted by Tim on Friday, September 10, 2004 at 12:58:31 pm PDT
- Category: Miscellany
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8 Responses to “Kiddie Pool+Sloth+Microscope=Awesome”
Excellent work!
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 11th, 2004 at 3:10 pm |I have gone too long without a microscope.
Wow, an insect blogger. Seriously, I’m honored that you found me and like the pics. The internet rules.
You make me think of two things:
1. I should watermark my pictures too. They’re kewl enough, I should say!
2. Would you happen to have a nice diagram of a mosquito larva’s anatomy? This needs to become a bigger science project for the kids, and such a reference would be a good place to start.
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 11th, 2004 at 5:06 pm |Yeah, your microscope photos are awesome!
I thought sure one of my books would have a diagram of the internal anatomy of mosquito larvae which I could scan and email you…but no such luck.
Here are a few links to general mosquito info and external anatomy:
Link to external larvae anatomy:
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/mosbiol.htm
Here’s a pdf file with some basic info & diagrams:
http://cvmvcd.org/information/WNV%20Information/Document%2010.pdf
More external anatomy:
http://www.ento.okstate.edu/mosquito/larvae.html
Neat middle school mosquito lab experiments:
http://lamer.lsu.edu/classroom/seascope/folios/mosquito_folio.pdf
Insects provide endless fascination to any observant youngster — all the neat appendages, adaptations, body styles, behaviors, life cycles, etc., etc…
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 11th, 2004 at 9:38 pm |All children should be introduced to our six-legged friends as early as possible, and it’s too cool that you’re doing so — and that you have a good microscope to teach them with!
Grosss! Bugs! Nasty!
On the other hand, it is nice to hear that you are doing your part to make this the lowest West Nile season in years.
So think bigger than Bugs-n-kids: take it to epidemiology, viral medicine, and even economics - how globalization impacts viral (and other invasive speciea) spread. Now from those kewl slides (which I’ve already downloaded & sold. Sorry) you have 3 years of cirriculum.
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 12th, 2004 at 7:31 am |Insectophile:
Thanks much for the links. I’ll use these until I can get some internal anatomy diagrams. I wonder if I’ll have to contact an academic for that stuff…
Adeodatus:
You are a born homeschooler. There’s probably even a market for that curriculum, including the awesome picture of the prickly larva on the front.
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 13th, 2004 at 1:52 pm |Adeodatus may be a born homeschooler, but Timberglund is a born geek.
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 13th, 2004 at 3:09 pm |Ew. I hate skeeters. But I have to confess to fascination for most things put under a microscope. It makes me want to get that microscope that you can hook up to a PC.
Comment Permalink | Posted on September 13th, 2004 at 11:33 pm |Wow.
Comment Permalink | Posted on April 5th, 2005 at 11:25 pm |That is sooooo disgusting and i reckon that should so not be on the net. Im only 13 and i reckon that you should not do that, not for kids. Bad bad you