Some insects are just too small! Even if we try to carefully pick them up with forceps, they either escape or are crushed. What to do?


Answer: Make an insect aspirator! An insect aspirator is a simple tool scientists use to collect bugs and insects that are too small to be picked up manually. Basically it’s a mini bug vacuum!


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Unsurprisingly, often the most interesting critters found in soil are the hardest to find! They’re small, fast, and used to avoiding things that search for them. So, how do we find and study these tiny insects? With a Berlese Funnel (Also called the Tullgren funnel)!


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Photo courtesy of ShelteringMemory.wordpress.com
Photo courtesy of ShelteringMemory.wordpress.com
Quadrants are an archeologist’s best friend. Basically, they’re large, wooden frames scientists—especially archeologists—use to keep track of exactly where they find things during a dig.


A “dig” is what archeologists call the process of uncovering artifacts. You can also use this tool in the backyard when investigating a field of bugs, insects, and other invertebrates!


The quadrant is divided into smaller sections by pieces of string tied at regular intervals. Where the string intersects, it creates square sections that can be easily labeled and referred to in a research notebook.


This way, when the scientists return to their labs they can remember exactly where they found everything—a very important part of the science of archeology!


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A biological net is one of the essential tools of a field biology researcher — you! A bio-net allows you to safely and gently gather samples. Whether you’re studying butterflies or tadpoles a bio-net is the tool to have! Important safety note: Do both of these with parental supervision. Many of the steps are tricky and involve sharp objects.


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The way animals and plants behave is so complicated because it not only depends on climate, water availability, competition for resources, nutrients available, and disease presence but also having the patience and ability to study them close-up.


We’re going to build an eco-system where you’ll farm prey stock for the predators so you’ll be able to view their behavior. You’ll also get a chance to watch both of them feed, hatch, molt, and more! You’ll observe closely the two different organisms and learn all about the way they live, eat, and are eaten.


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What grows in the corner of your windowsill? In the cracks in the sidewalk? Under the front steps? In the gutter at the bottom of the driveway? Specifically, how  doe these animals build their homes and how much space do they need? What do they eat? Where do fish get their food? How do ants find their next meal?


These are hard questions to answer if you don’t have a chance to observe these animals up-close. By building an eco-system, you’ll get to observe and investigate the habits and behaviors of your favorite animals. This column will have an aquarium section, a decomposition chamber with fruit flies or worms, and a predator chamber, with water that flows through all sections. This is a great way to see how the water cycle, insects, plants, soil, and marine animals all work together and interact.


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Insects are not only the most diverse subgroup of arthropods, but with over a million discovered species it is the most diverse group of animals on earth. Although they can’t all be as beautiful as a butterfly, they all play important roles in their ecosystems—just think of where we would be without bees!


The segmented exoskeletons of insects have a hard, inner layer called the cuticle, and a water-resistant outside layer called the exocuticle. Insects are divided into two major groups: winged insects and wingless insects. Air is taken in through structures called spirials, and delivered directly to the body.



Most insects reproduce sexually and are oviparous (hatch from eggs after the eggs are laid), although some insects reproduce asexually.


You can grow your own butterflies using a premade kit from Home Training Tools!


I have to admit, one of my all-time favorite animals is the octopus. It’s not only an invertebrate, but amazingly intelligent and can be poisonous (like the blue-ring Octopus shown here) or not.


The octopus is an animal because it’s multi-cellular (more than one cell, so amoeba and protists are not animals), it’s moveable (not like a fungus), and a heterotroph (not a plant). Their life cycle starts with a single cell that divides and leads into a multi-celled adult.


All molluscs have a muscular foot on the bottom, and there are three basic shapes: gastropods (snails and slugs), bivalves (oysters and clams), and cephalopods (octpous and squid).



The Indonesian Mimic Octopus, Thaumoctopus mimicus. This fascinating creature was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, the mimic octopus is the first known species to take on the characteristics of multiple species. This octopus is able to copy the physical likeness and movement of more than fifteen different species, including sea snakes, lionfish, flatfish, brittle stars, giant crabs, sea shells, stingrays, jellyfish, sea anemones, and mantis shrimp.



 


This animal is so intelligent that it is able to discern which dangerous sea creature to impersonate that will present the greatest threat to its current possible predator. For example, scientists observed that when the octopus was attacked by territorial damselfishes, it mimicked the banded sea snake, a known predator of damselfishes.


Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it's not hard  - you can dissect a clam right at home using this inexpensive clam specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.

Materials:

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Invertebrates are organisms without backbones. Let’s look at two very simple types of invertebrates; Sponges and Cnidarians. Sponges (Phylum Porifera), found in oceans all over the world, are made up of colonies of specialized cells—some help push water through the sponge, some help it feed, some are responsible for reproduction, etc.


They feed by filtering water through its pores. They have flagella on the inside that drive the water through and pick up particulates in the water. In this sense, they are known as sessile filter feeders. Sponges are attached to the ground below them—they are sessile (unable to move). However, sponges can move around at certain times in their lifespan.




Scientists use to think they were plants, but we know now that they are in fact animals. Besides their specialized cells, sponges do not have any organs, nerves, or even true tissues. They are held together through the cooperation of the colony.


Cnidarians (don’t pronounce the ‘c’, so it sounds more like “nay-DAR-ee-ons”) also are radially symmetrical. This means they have a circular body plan such that any way you cut them in half the sides will be equal. There are two basic body forms; polyp and medusa. The polyp is a cup-shaped body—with the mouth facing upward (sea anemones, for example). The medusa is bell-shaped and has a downward-facing mouth (jellyfish, for example). Some can even start in the medusa stage and then move into the hydra stage.


Painful stinging cells, called nematocysts, make the phylum Cnidaria especially notable. Jellyfish and sea anemones are just two examples of these painful creatures. The nematocysts are, in fact, long hollow threads that are used to trap prey. Additionally, these nematocysts are triggered externally, so even if you come across a dead jellyfish don’t step on it!


A Cnidarian with a polyp body plan, a sea anemone, and a Cnidarian with a medusa body plan, a jellyfish. Notice the upward facing mouth of the polyp, and the downward facing one of the jellyfish.




Cnidarians, unlike sponges, have true tissues. They digest their food in a gastrovascular cavity—a large cavity containing digestive enzymes. The digestive cavity also has circulatory functions. Cnidarians, like sponges, can form colonies. Colonies of polyps form the jellyfish the Portuguese Man-O-War. Similarly, colonies of cnidarians form on calcium carbonate skeletons to make coral reefs.


Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it’s not hard – you can dissect a starfish right at home using an inexpensive specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.

In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at a starfish. Starfish are members of the phylum Echinoderm. There are many things that make starfish interesting: their rays are symmetrical around their center (this is called radial symmetry), they use seawater instead of blood to transport nutrients through their bodies (this is called a water vascular system), and they move around using tube feet on the underside of their bodies.

Materials

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Here we’re going to discuss the differences between three types of worms; flatworms, roundworms, and segmented worms. The word “worm” is not, in fact, a scientific name. It’s an informal way of classifying animals with long bodies and no appendages (no including snakes). They are bilaterally symmetrical (the right and left sides mirror each other). Worms live in salt and fresh water, on land, and inside other organisms as parasites.


The differences between the three types of worms we will discuss depend on the possession of a body cavity and segments. Flatworms have neither a body cavity nor segments. Roundworms only have a body cavity, and segmented worms have both a body cavity and segments.


Flatworms (Phylum Platyhelminthes) have incomplete digestive systems. That means that their digestive system has only one opening. The gas exchange occurs on the surface of their bodies. There are no blood vessels or nervous systems in flatworms. Some are non-parasitic, like the Sea flat worm, and some are parasitic, like the tapeworm.



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Some animals glow under ultraviolet light.  Jellyfish are a prime example of these glowing animals.  Under normal conditions, worms do not glow.


However, scientists have been able to genetically alter some worms so that they will glow under an ultraviolet light.  To do this, scientists engage in genetic engineering.  They inject the gene that makes jellyfish glow into the worm.


Even though jellyfish and worms are very different animals, their genes, like the genes of most living things, are actually quite similar.  So, the worms with the injected gene will glow just like jellyfish do.


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Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it's not hard  - you can dissect a worm right at home using an inexpensive specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.

In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at an earthworm. Earthworms play an important role in their ecosystem--when they tunnel through dirt they mix nutrients which helps make the soil healthy and able to support plant life.

Materials:

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Echinoderms, meaning “spiny skin”, are radial symmetric marine animals. They are found at all depths—both shallow and deep water. They play important roles in their ecosystems. Despite appearances, they do not have skeletons. The “spiny skin” is, in fact, skin covering a spiny endoskeleton (internal skeleton).
How do echinoderms move? How do they feed themselves?



Echinoderms have a water vascular system responsible for gas exchange, movement, and feeding. This system is an internal network of fluid-filled canals. Depending on the species, they have various ways of getting food into their water vascular systems. Some are filter feeders, while others (such as starfish) are predatory. They use this system in place of gills, heart, and a closed circulatory system. Although they do not have brains, they do have nerve nets responsible for receiving and processing sensory information.
What about their reproduction? They reproduce sexually—with sperms and eggs. Some species provide brainless parental care.


Here’s a super-short quick snippet about starfish:



Echinoderms are found worldwide, and play important roles in their environments. Primarily, they are strong links in the food chain. For example, they control the growth of algae on coral reefs (making it easier for the reefs to filter-feed), and they serve as food for other organisms (otters, for example).


Starfish Dissection

You can do this dissection at home! Here’s a very inexpensive starfish dissection guide and starfish specimen and simple dissection tools!


Arthropods, organisms in the phylum arthropoda, are organisms with segmented bodies and appendages on at least one segment. They use these appendages for defense, feeding, sensory perception, and locomotion. We usually see them everyday: fly on the wall, or perhaps moth by the light. The phylum is incredibly divers and the organisms within it have developed numerous adaptations to deal with environments from your kitchen counter to the Amazon!


Arthropoda is the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Examples of Arthropods include: scorpions, crabs centipedes, insects, and crayfish.


Arthropods are covered my hard external skeletons. When they grow they shed these skeletons in a process called molting. For gas exchange aquatic arthropods have gills, while terrestrial (land-based) arthropods have either a tracheal systems or book lungs. Tracheal systems are air sacs fed by pores in the exoskeleton. Book lungs are gills modified to extract oxygen from air.


Six classes of crustaceans are recognized in the word, and almost fifty two thousand species. Most of them are aquatic. Interestingly, they have a brain in the form of ganglia (connections between nerve cells).



In the phylum Mirapoda (Centipedes and Millipedes), over thirteen thousand species exist! All of them live on land. Some species have fewer than ten legs, while some can have over seven hundred and fifty!


Spiders (a type of Arachnid) are found in the class Araneae and the subphylum Chelicerata. This subphylum includes scorpions, mites, and ticks as well as spiders. Arachnids characteristically have four pairs of legs, a pair of chelicerae (see table at the end of this section), and a body organized into the cephalothorax (a fusion of the head, thorax, and abdomen). There are eleven subgroups of Arachnids.



Insects are not only the most diverse subgroup of arthropods, but with over a million discovered species it is the most diverse group of animals on earth. Although they can’t all be as beautiful as a butterfly, they all play important roles in their ecosystems—just think of where we would be without bees!


The segmented exoskeletons of insects have a hard, inner layer called the cuticle, and a water-resistant outside layer called the exocuticle. Insects are divided into two major groups: winged insects and wingless insects. Air is taken in through structures called spirials, and delivered directly to the body.


Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it's not hard  - you can dissect a grasshopper right at home using this inexpensive specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.

Materials:

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Dissection in biology provides a hands-on education above and beyond reading a textbook. By seeing, touching and exploring different organs, muscles and tissues inside an animal and seeing how they work together allows you to really understand your own body and appreciate the amazing world around us. And it’s not hard – you can dissect a crayfish right at home using an inexpensive specimen with a dissection guide and simple dissection tools! Many doctors, surgeons and veterinarians report that their first fascination with the body started with a biology dissection class.

In today’s dissection, we’ll be looking at a crayfish. Crayfish are members of the phylum Arthropoda. There are many things that make crayfish interesting: they dwell at the bottom of streams, rivers, and ponds; they feed on just about anything that comes their way (that’s why they’re called freshwater scavengers); and they have many appendages that help them save energy.

Materials

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Sea angels used to be known as a pteropod (small swimming sea slugs), but now are recognized as pelagic marine opisthobranch gastropod molluscs. Sea angels, also called cliones, live all over the world, both in polar and equatorial seas. Sea butterflies are similar to sea angels, but they also have a shell. Some sea angels even eat sea butterflies, which are slower and larger than themselves!


Sea angels are transparent, gelatinous, and unusually small (the average size is only an inch). Since sea angels are simultaneous hermaphrodites, their fertilization occurs internally and eggs are released to float with the ocean currents until they hatch on their own.


Although sea angels usually enjoy slow movement, as they only beat their winds once a second, they can also put on a burst of speed if they’re catching dinner.




If you have ever gone searching though tide-pools at the beach, you’ve probably seen your fair share of Mollusks. This is because mollusks live mainly in the sea (in the intertidal zone), although some live in freshwater.


Mussels, scallops snails, oysters (from which we get pearls!), and clams are only a few examples of types of mollusks. The mollusk body plan generally involves a muscular foot for locomotion, a body housing organs, a head with eyes or tentacles, and a mantle (which creates the shell). Usually, they absorb oxygen from the water using gills.


Only mollusks have a structure called a radula. Radulae (the plural of radula) are composed mostly of chitin, and can be as simple as a structure used to scrape algae off rocks, to the beaks of octopuses.




When you hear “roach” you might not immediately think of something that would make a good pet, but not all roaches are like the cockroaches you might have seen in your house!


Species such as the Orange Spotted Roach (Blaptica dubia) make excellent insect pets: they don’t cost much, they have an interesting life cycle and habits, and they do not require much effort to care for. Their average lifespan is about 18 months and you’ll be able to learn more about their fascinating life cycle (from egg to adult) if you allow them to breed!


A pet roach isn’t a pest?


It may seem like all roaches are pests, but of 4,000 species, only 4 or 5 live in homes and are considered pests (such as the American cockroach). Most roaches live in tropical environments far from domesticated areas. They are very different from the kind of household pest you might think of when you hear “roach.”


You might think roaches would make pretty boring pets, but they are surprisingly fast and fun to watch. You can learn a lot about insect anatomy and what makes roaches unique by taking care of them. The species that make good pets do not smell, are not noisy, cannot fly, and generally are very easy to clean up after. They typically are most active at night, because they prefer a dark environment like they have on the floor of the rainforest. They love to hide during the day, but will come out to eat.



 


Can I touch them?  They are meant to be pets, and are perfectly safe to handle. A good environment for roaches is a small aquarium or plastic cage with cardboard egg cartons for them to hang out in. You might try picking up one of the egg cartons where a roach is hiding, then either hold the carton so the roach can crawl around on it or let the roach crawl in to your hands. Hold out your hand, keeping your fingers together and flat. Let the roach crawl on you, then slowly lift out your hand and cup it slightly. Remember to wash your hands afterwards, using warm water and soap. Although these insects don’t cause diseases in humans, they may be carrying harmful bacteria, so it is important to wash your hands so that you don’t get sick.


How long do they live? It varies, but species like Orange Spotted Roaches have a lifespan of 18-24 months. The female gives live birth, usually to 20-30 babies at a time. The babies reach maturity in 3-4 months after they are born. While they are growing into adults, they will molt – shedding their outer hard shell, or exoskeleton, and then growing a bigger one.


Will my roaches breed? If you get one male and one female, there is a good chance that they will breed under the right circumstances. If you do not want baby roaches, keep the temperature of the habitat around 70 degrees, or normal room temperature. Adult Orange Spotted Roaches will be fine at this temperature, but they will not mate because their young need higher temperatures to survive. If you would like to see the complete life cycle, you will need to ensure that their habitat has enough heat and humidity.


Feeding Time: What does a pet roach eat? They are omnivores – they eat plants and meat. So a good basic diet contains protein from plants and animals and fiber from grains. You can buy special roach food for them and then to supplement their diet give them fresh fruits and vegetables once a week. Try putting a slice of apple, banana, orange, carrot, potato, or zucchini, or a few spinach leaves in a shallow plastic dish and put it in their habitat. This will provide vitamins and minerals for your pets. Be sure to take the uneaten produce out of the habitat within 48 hours to prevent mold from growing, or attracting ants or fruit flies. A great roach diet would be dry food every day and a fresh food supplement once a week.


Be sure to keep their water dish full. Roaches can live a long time without food, but usually only survive three days without water. The water dish also helps make their habitat more moist and humid. For easiest care, use water absorbent crystals that hold water. You can keep an airtight container of prepared water crystals in a cool place, and add another crystal to the water dish whenever needed (usually every 2-3 days).


If the habitat is hot and humid, the roaches will be more active, which means they will also eat and drink more.


Cleaning Time: You should periodically clean out your pet roach’s habitat to make sure there is no mold growing. Cleaning out the habitat takes only a few minutes and will prevent any bad odors coming from your insects. When is the right time to clean the habitat? When you see small dark roach droppings starting to collect on the bottom, you should clean the habitat out. Usually about once a month is a good time. The minimum should be once every other month.


To clean out the habitat, first remove the roaches. Place them in a container that has smooth sides to prevent them from climbing out. Pick up the roaches one at a time and transfer them to the carton or other container. If a roach is hiding in an egg carton, carefully lift out the carton, then let the roach crawl off into the container or onto your hand. Wash your hands with soap and warm water after touching the roaches.


Take the food and water dishes out, as well as the egg cartons, and place them on paper towels. Rinse the container out and then wash it with a solution of 10 parts warm water to 1 part bleach. Rinse the container again and dry it thoroughly. Place the food and water dishes back in the container. If the cardboard egg cartons seem clean, put them back into the container. Don’t use foam egg cartons. You can also use cardboard tubes in different sizes (mailing tubes, toilet paper tubes, or wrapping paper tubes cut down to shorter lengths) so the roaches can crawl in them. When you’re finished cleaning, throw the used egg cartons away as well as the paper towels. Transfer your roaches back to their habitat, using a flat hand so they can crawl off.


Building a Roach Ranch: If you decide to get a pet roach, you can create a habitat to be as simple or creative as you like. If you wish to make a more natural-looking habitat for your pet roaches to enjoy, you can buy peat moss or coconut husk mulch from a pet store (in the Reptile section). Put in a layer of moss or mulch (about one inch), then add pieces of bark for the roaches to climb on and hide under. This type of Roach Ranch will be similar to the Orange Spotted Roaches’ natural environment in the rainforests of South America.


You can make a Roach Ranch out of cardboard, which can easily be thrown away when it gets dirty. Make a multi-level mansion for your roaches by cutting 3-4 identical shapes (square, rectangle, L-shape) from cardboard. Put separators in between each level – use stacked cardboard strips that are one inch wide and several inches long. Each level should be separated about ½” or three strips of cardboard stacked together. Use Elmer’s glue to attach the separators and flat levels, and let it dry completely (may take up to 24 hours) before putting it in your roach habitat. Add cardboard tubes or crumpled newspaper to complete your Roach Ranch. Remember that it will be easier to clean if roach droppings can fall freely to the ground. When you clean your habitat, check to see if your Roach Ranch is staying clean. Throw away any parts that have been well-used and add new cardboard material for the roaches to climb.