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Another Internet project seeking participants.... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 23:05:52 -0400 From: Don Bass <bass@tenet.edu> To: csimpson@tenet.edu Subject: Pillbug Project Information (fwd) Friends: Please forward, but not Ednet, this interesting project. Also, it may be a good idea to save and forward again in early September. Have a good evening. Don ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 11:14:12 -0500 (CDT) From: Stan Smith <ssmith@services.dese.state.mo.us> To: Don Bass <bass@tenet.edu> Subject: Pillbug Project Information Don, Some time ago I posted a message about a science project that I am working on involving pillbugs. I recieved a reply either from you or from Rick Armstrong (I am not really sure which) which expressed some interest in the project. The project takes place in the fall of 1994 and I would like to gather a list of participating teachers over the summer. Please let me know if one of you is interested in participating, or forward this message to any science teacher that you think may be interested. Below is a detailed description of the program and how teachers can be involved. Please let me know if you have any questions or input. Thanks, Stan Smith OVERVIEW OF PILLBUG PROJECT: Environmental Adaptation: The Pillbug Story The project was funded by the TAPESTRY grant program, funded by Toyota and administered by NSTA. During the 1994-94 school year, my 7th grade life science students will make contact (by E-mail) with several schools (5 to 10 schools) from various locations throughout North America. Each school will collect live pillbugs (Isopoda; Crustacea, species will certainly vary widely) locally, place the pillbugs in a suitable box (I can supply the box and shipping cost) and send them to my school in Missouri, along with a photograph or videotape of the local habitat in which they were collected. I will send these same materials from our area to each school that participates. If you wish to receive these materials from the other schools you can contact them via E-mail and arrange to establish a network. I will provide you with information on all of the participating schools (location, E-mail address, etc.) when the project starts in the Fall. My students will conduct a series of observations and experiments on the pillbugs from each area, and will compare the resulting data to get a picture of how this organism is adapted to different environments (hence the name "Environmental Adaptation: The Pillbug Story"). If you are interested in conducting these observations and experiments at your own schools, I will provide the information you need to carry them out. Most of them require commonly available equipment and materials. If you are not interested in actually carrying out the observations and experiments I will provide you with the resulting data from all of our activities with pillbugs from all of the participating schools. This way your students could still see the results of our experiments and benefit from them. Below is a partial list, and brief description, of the observations and experiments that we will conduct with pillbugs from each location: 1. The effect of habitat of origin on the rate of evaporation of body water. This experiment is one of the more involved ones. It will require dessicators (not expensive, but not usually available) and an accurate electronic balance (very expensive). The pill bugs will be placed in the dessicators and weighed periodically to determine the rate of evaporation of body water. It is presumed that those that are adapted to drier climates will have bodies that allow less evaporative water loss. Pillbugs do not survive this procedure and only a few should be used. 2. The effect of humidity on activity levels of pillbugs from different habitats of origin. It is presumed that pillbugs from drier locations will be active at lower levels of humidity than those from more humid environments. Pillbugs become inactive (or even roll into a ball) when the humidity level is too low for them. Materials needed for this are minimal. Pillbugs will be placed in jars of different humidity levels and there activity will be measured by counting the marks they make as they walk on the surface of smoked paper. The humidity levels will be controlled by placing water or silica gel dessicant under a screen at the bottom of the jar. The pillbugs will be on a piece of smoked paper placed over the screen. 3. The effect of habitat of origin on the position of pillbugs in a chamber with a humidity gradient. It is presumed that pillbugs from drier habitats will tend to position themselves in areas of lower humidities than those from more humid areas. The materials for this experiment are minimal. Pillbugs will be placed in long rectangular trays in which a humidity gradient has been established. The bottom of the trays will be marked with a grid so that the positions of the pillbugs can be easily observed and recorded. The trays will be covered with transparent plastic and the gradient will be established by placing silica gel dessicant at one end and wet toweling at the other. Once covered, the gradient will form in about 1/2 hr. 4. The effect of habitat of origin on the position of pillbugs in a chamber with a temperature gradient. This will be similar to experiment #3 above, but the gradient will be established with a heat pad under one end of the tray. Materials needed for this experiment are minimal. 5. The effect of habitat of origin on the position of pillbugs in a chamber with a light gradient. This will be similar to experiment #3 and #4 above, but the gradient will be established with a light placed at one end of the tray. Materials needed will be minimal. 6. The effect of habitat of origin on length of respiratory organs (pleopods). Terrestrial isopods (pillbugs and sowbugs) have several pair of modified appendages under the first two abdominal segments called pleopods. Pillbug blood in the pleopod picks up oxygen from the air as it bathes inside the pleopod. Insects have muscles that can close off the openings for air (called spiracles) but pillbugs cannot close off the pleopods. These organs therefore are responsible for as much as 42% of the body water loss in pillbugs. It is presumed that these pleopods would be smaller (and therefore have less water-losing surface area) on pillbugs from drier environments. These observations will require precise measuring equipment. I have decided to use microscope stage micrometers. The pleopods will be placed on the stage micrometers (a glass slide with a very small measuring scale etched ion it's surface) and viewed with dissecting microscopes. If these items are not available, a simple visual comparison (perhaps with a hand lens) will help the students to see if there is much difference between these organs. 7. Effect of habitat of origin on invertebrate diversity of leaf litter. Pillbugs will need to be shipped in boxes containing moist substrate. The easiest way to do this (and least stressful to the animals) is to include some of the leaf litter from the area where the pillbugs are collected. I thought it would be interesting for students to systematically observe the variety of invertebrates found in these leaf litter samples from different areas of North America. I realize that there is no way that students can actually identify individual species, but simple qualitative comparisons might prove fascinating to them. The organisms will be removed from the leaf litter using the standard Burlese apparatus. Simply place the leaf litter in a funnel, place the funnel over a jar to collect the organisms, and place a bright incandescent bulb over the top of the funnel. The heat from the bulb will dry out the contents of the funnel from the top down, driving all organisms out the opening in the bottom. The observations and experiments described above will be carried out by my students during the Fall of 1994. As a participant, you may want to duplicate some or all of these experiments. It would be nice if our students could exchange and compare data from similar experiments using E-mail. But if you do not duplicate all of these experiments the students should still communicate with E-mail as much as possible. This is an important aspect of the project. You do not have to duplicate all of these experiments to be part of the project. All you really need to do is collect the pillbugs from your area and send them to us, along with a photo or videotape of the area and a leaf litter sample. If you do this we will return a similar package from our area and will communicate all of our findings to you. Your level of involvement beyond this is up to you. So basically, there are three general levels of participation: LEVEL 1: Participating classrooms will collect representative pillbugs from their area and send them (alive) to my school, along with a leaf litter sample and photograph (or videotape) of the area of collection (I can supply the shipping box and shipping cost). We will send you all of our resulting data, as well as the final product, which is a book produced by my students and myself. This level of involvement requires no experimentation, no materials (other than the photo or videotape), and minimal class time. LEVEL 2: If you are interested, we will send you a similar set of materials from our area of Missouri. Your students can conduct the same set of observations and experiments (or just those that you have the equipment and materials for) and they can exchange information via E-mail so that we can compare results. This level of involvement would establish interactive dialogue between your students and mine, as well as two-way exchange of experimental results. LEVEL 3: If you wish to have your student experiment with pillbugs from areas besides your area and ours, you can contact some or all of the other project participants and arrange to exchange the same materials with them. I will supply information on all participating schools (from 5 to 10 schools) in the Fall when the project actually starts. This would involve your students in a large-scale, real world study of how organisms are adapted to various environments. This level of involvement could require a considerable amount of class time, but I believe it will be a fascinating and relevant project for students. I encourage you to take this as far as you can. All observations and experiments take place in the Fall semester. During the Spring semester my students will change gears and take on the roles of writers and artists, in addition to scientists. They will produce a book in which each chapter will actually be two sections, one will be a continuing fiction story, the other will be the corresponding scientific information that is related to the fiction chapter and which they have collected during the project. A language arts teacher will come into the classroom to help them with writing fiction and our art teacher will help them with illustrations. A team of students will produce the book using desktop publishing and will scan the artwork into each page. I will produce a section of the book myself that will be a teachers guide and will explain the project and give suggestions for incorporating the book and related activities into the curriculum. The pages will be bound at a professional printing shop. My goal is that the book will prove to be useful to middle-level teachers and will promote and facilitate the use of pillbugs as a fascinating subject of student research. If you participate at any of the levels described above we will send you a copy of finished book. If you are still interested in participating I you know of any other teachers anywhere in North America (especially in the six target areas described above) who may be interested, please forward this message. STAN SMITH Warrensburg Middle School 522 East Gay St. Warrensburg, MO 64093 (816) 747-5Y612 (school) (816) 747-7534 (home) E-mail: ssmith@services.dese.state.mo.us