1. Teaching Elementary and Middle School Science
BUGSCOPE and ART
Erin Langdon
Education 140
Teaching Elementary and Middle School Science
Spring 2007

2. Monarch Butterfly Drawing from Memory

3. Monarch Butterfly Photograph

4. Electron Microscope image 2, 000X Monarch Wing Scales Creekside Park Elementary Bugscope Session May 31, 2002 Anchorage, Alaska

5. Electron Microscope image 19,315X Monarch Wing Scale Anne Hutchinson grade school Bugscope Session June 21, 2002 Eastchester, NY

6. Bugscope Application
Bugscope directly relates to the National Science Education Content Standard of Science and Technology.
“The science and technology standards establish connections between the natural and designed worlds and provide students with opportunities to develop decision-making abilities. They are not standards for technology education; rather, these standards emphasize abilities associated with the process of design and fundamental understandings about the enterprise of science and its various linkages with technology.”

7. Bugscope Application
Conducting a Bugscope activity session with a class allows for the process of inquiry based science to occur. With the use of technology students are able to communicate with entomologists. Students are able to conduct live chats with entomologists and other scientists at the University of Illinois to answer their questions regarding insects. Students are able to view the insect specimens they collected and sent to the bugscope scientists. Perhaps the coolest part of Bugscope is that students are coached by these scientists to actually manipulate an electron microscope via remote internet access.
Students are able to experience firsthand how scientist use technological tools such as microscopes and ESEM to further their research and discoveries. Bugscope is an excellent resource to actively engage students in authentic science research. Students are able to make choices regarding the investigation of particular insects, how to use the electron microscope and how to gain knowledge from entomologists, significantly driving their own learning.

8. Bugscope Application
Before participating in a bugscope session myself I had never collected my own insect specimens. I was not familiar with what electronmicroscopy images looked like. I have a greater understanding of what entomologists do and how various types of microscopes work. I have examined the foot of a beetle, a junebug throat, fruit fly eyes, the mouth of an ant and a lady bug claw at unbelievable levels of magnification through our Marquette University session. I now know about the difference between insects and arachnids. I know that the chitin is an insect’s covering and could go on and on. As a future educator I have learned the value of a resource like Bugscope and how I could utilize and manage such an activity in my classroom.

9. Cross Curricular Connections
Bugscope may be used as an aid to help awaken the imagination of students and to build their science knowledge. Bugscope and the general study of insects may be connected across the curriculum.
- Insects may be used as subject matter in art classes or as an art extension activity.
- Students may make insect block prints, by looking at photographs of insects and designing their own insect through the use of textured materials on cardboard. The cardboard print plate may be covered with ink using an ink roller and then pressed into paper. A reduction technique may be used. By peeling away levels of texture, inking in different colors and printing over the initial print a number of colors may be incorporated.

10. Cross Curricular Connections
Insect study may be related to math concepts such as measurement and scale
Creative writing and poetry lessons may use photographs and knowledge of insects as inspiration
Teachers may make use of trade books in order to incorporate science knowledge into reading instruction or vice versa
Field Trips such as a trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum butterfly room may supplement insect study or connect social studies and science learning
Butterflies and other insects may also be raised carefully within classrooms and become the subject of many lessons

11. This national geographic map reveals the large range of the Monarch Butterfly

12. Fast Facts from National Geographic
Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus):
Type: Bug
Diet: Herbivore
Average lifespan in the wild: 6-8 months
Size: Wingspan 3.7 to 4.1 inches
Weight: to .026 ounces
Group name: Flutter

13. Monarch Butterfly Summary
Monarch Butterflies are definitely interesting insects. I believe people have a tendency to admire monarchs not only because of their beautiful black, orange and white coloring but also because they are quite easy to identify. Their coloring and distinctive pattern help to protect them as predators are warned by their color and pattern that they are foul tasting and poisonous.
These butterflies are also quite popular as a result of the tremendous transformation that they make in the course of their life. Monarchs begin life as eggs. They then hatch as larvae. They eat their eggshells and the milkweed plants that they were placed on. Larvae become large, colorful caterpillars. As caterpillars they create a hard protective case around themselves and enter the pupa stage. Finally, a monarch butterfly emerges from the culmination of the pupa stage.
Monarch butterflies born in late summer and early fall in North America are unique. They are the only ones that make a great mass migration. This migration is approximately 3,000 miles and brings millions of monarchs to California and Mexico each winter.
Eastern populations of monarchs who summer east of the Rocky Mountains may be in danger. Their numbers are declining as a result of natural disasters in Mexico and reduced amounts of milkweed plants which they are dependent on for food. (Information source:

14. Insect Resources Bugscope Site: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/
University of Illinois extension, “Let’s talk about insects”:
National Geographic:
Bug Bios:

15. Eyewitness Insect DK publishing
Trade Books
Eyewitness Insect DK publishing
A Monarch Butterfly’s Life by John Himmelman
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons