Milkweed Bugs, Wednesday, May 27, 2020

My last observation was last Tuesday, so it’s been a week.   

• Mini-habitat #1 My masking tape experiment did not change their behavior. Even with the sun blocked out over their usual grouping spot, they still grouped up.  I’m not sure what that’s about, but it’s happening in all the bags. Maybe they just group up in the highest parts of the milkweed plants… (See photo)

• Mini-habitat #2 I have not taken the moldy food bag out yet, I’ll do that this week.   (See photo)

• Mini-habitat #4 Judging by their size, we have a lot of mature bugs now. I have not seen any mating yet in this bag. (See photo) 
  

• Mini-habitat #5 Still no evidence of mating. This water container ran dry, so I filled it up a lot, this time. (See picture)
  

• Mini-habitat - Extras - Still no evidence of mating. I would expect to see that behavior in this bag first, just because there are so many bugs in here.   (See picture)
  

I am beginning to think about the end of school. What do I do with all these bugs?  I can not release them into the wild, they have been breed to eat only sunflower seeds and I do not have any sunflowers near me. Hmmmmmmmmm...

I will make more observations on later this week…watch your email for a notification of when I post.  

Stay safe!

Contact information: 

Remind: text @497h7k to 81010

Email: mmckellar@lowell.k12.ma.us

Milkweed Bugs, Tuesday, May 19, 2020

My last observation was Monday, so it’s been four days since then.  We’ve had a big development with one of the mini-habitats.

• Mini-habitat #1 There is still a large group of bugs near the top of the bag. I am going to do a test to see if it’s air or light or something else they are seeking. I places a piece of masking tape over the top of the bag. The air holes are still open but this will provide shade from the sun. We’ll see what happens. (See photos)

• Mini-habitat #2 Mold has begun to grow on the food supply. I will have to replace that. Fortnately, I still have the food bags from some of the habitats that I disassembled.  (See photo)
  

• Mini-habitat #4 There is also mold on this food bag. I wonder why we suddenly have mold growing. What has changed since we started? (See photo) 

• Mini-habitat #5 I saw a behavior today I have not see before. Two bugs seemed to be fighting or wrestling together. I wonder if this was an attempt at mating (See picture)

• Mini-habitat - Extras - Lots of bugs near the air holes. I took a picture of a group of exoskeletons.   (See picture)

We are down to five active habitats now. I can no longer identify any of the original adults we started with. Some may still be in the bags, but the offspring are so large, I can not tell them apart any more.

I will make more observations on Saturday of this week…watch your email for a notification of when I post.  

Stay safe!

Contact information: 

Remind: text @497h7k to 81010

Email: mmckellar@lowell.k12.ma.us

Why We Science

One of the questions I’m often asked by students is, “Why do we have to learn this?”

My answer is generally something like, “It’s important to have a fundamental understanding of how the world works.”

Maybe the best way to explain what I mean is by this example:

If someone told you this is how to bake brownies, you’d say that’s ridiculous. Even a four-year-old could tell you this is not the way to bake brownies. That small child has enough understanding of how to the world works to say this is wrong. 

It’s that little voice in the pre-schooler’s head saying, “Nooooo, you have to mix it all up first,” that we’re teaching in science classes.  We're teaching the voice.

It’s really not about facts and such. It’s about having enough information about the world, gathered through systematic observation and experimentation, and then applying that information in a critical way.  That’s what we call “science.” 

Science is the process not the end result.

If you don’t have this foundational understanding, you have no basis to evaluate what’s happening around you.

Think about all that is happening in our country today. We’re in the midst of a pandemic that has killed over 5,700 people in Massachusetts (as of 5/16). Think about all the conflicting things you are seeing on social media. Having an understanding of how the world really works puts you in a much better position to evaluate what you are seeing and hearing.

I watched a few minutes of a video that was being shared a lot on social media. Within a few minutes I could hear that little voice in my head saying “There’s something wrong here. This is not accurate. These people are twisting things around to support their own goals.” 

If you don’t understand how things work, you can’t separate good, reliable information from agenda-driven nonsense.

We study a little bit of a lot of things in middle school. We don’t go very deep on any one topic but we cover a lot of different topics. That’s why, in two years, we study: 

Engineering: Communication Systems 

Electromagnetic Forces,

Weather and Water, 

Populations and Ecosystems, 

Engineering: Bridges

Chemistry,

Heredity and Adaptations (Genetics),

Gravity,

Planetary Science (Space & Astronomy)

We cover a lot of ground in two years.

We’re trying to teach you how things work and interact at a very basic level. This helps get you ready for high school, college and life.  

It’s important to have a fundamental understanding of how the world works.

That’s why we science.

Milkweed Bugs, Friday, May 15, 2020

My last observation was Monday, so it’s been four days since then.  We've had a big development with one of the min-habitats.

• Mini-habitat #1 A group of milkweed bugs was still clustered around the air holes near the top. I do not know if this is about air, or maybe sunlight because that part of the bag gets more light, or something else. (See photo)

• Mini-habitat #2 There are three distinct groups of bugs in various places in the habitat. I wonder if this clustering is a behavior typical of milkweed bugs.  (See photo)

• Mini-habitat #4 There is a large group of bugs clustered together near the air holes. I do not know what the behavior is about. Are they getting enough air? (See photo) 
  

• Mini-habitat #5 The largest of these bugs are much smaller than the ones in the Extras habitat. I see some clutches in the cotton. (See picture)

• Mini-habitat #7 The last adult died this week. This is the last observation of this habitat. This pair never had offspring. I do not know why.  

• Mini-habitat - Extras - Some of these bugs are nearly full sized. I can’t tell the adults we started with from their largest offspring.  (See picture)

My wife peeked in while I was doing these observations. She was grossed out by all the bugs hanging in bags on the back of my office door. 

I will make more observations on Tuesday of next week…watch your email for a notification of when I post. Secret code word: Goodbye Seven.

Stay safe!

Contact information: 

Remind: text @497h7k to 81010

Email: mmckellar@lowell.k12.ma.us

Milkweed Bugs, Monday, May 11, 2020

My last observation was Thursday, so it’s been four days since my last observation.  Today, I will be sure to include a picture of each mini-habitat.

• Mini-habitat #1 A group of milkweed bugs was clustered around the air holes. (See photo)
  
  
  

• Mini-habitat #2 Some of the milkweed bugs are starting to develop the pattern of dots and stripes as they get larger. (See photo)

• Mini-habitat #4 We lost one adult since my last observation. Some of the bugs are getting almost as large as the remaining adult. (See photo) 

• Mini-habitat #5 I found the last adult today. Some of the baby bugs are maturing so it’s getting harder to quickly see the adult vs the almost mature bugs. (See picture)

• Mini-habitat #7 The last adult in this habitat is on the water supply paper towel either again or still. Is seems to be more active than it was last week.  

• Mini-habitat - Extras - There is so much going on in this bag, it’s crazy.  (See picture)

I have been very pleased to not see any escapees from our habitats. Of course, I’ve probably just jinxed myself.

I will make more observations on Friday of this week…watch your email for a notification of when I post.

Stay safe!

Contact information: 

Remind: text @497h7k to 81010

Email: mmckellar@lowell.k12.ma.us

Some of You…

When I was in college I worked part-time as a security guard in a factory. I recall a series of conversations I had with a machinist who complained about insomnia. 

He’d worked at the factory for more than twenty years. When he started working there he was assigned to the third shift so he’d start work at 11pm and got off at 7 in the morning. So he worked at night, and slept during the day. He did this for about ten years, then because of seniority, was able to move to the second shift. This was better, he worked from 3pm until 11pm. He did this for another ten years, before finally moving up to the first shift. The first shift has the most desired hours - 7am to 3pm. Finally, after twenty years he was able to live what he considered a “normal life.” Except, he couldn’t sleep. All those years of working and sleeping in different rhythms than what his body naturally need too, messed up his ability to sleep. He was very unhappy and was considering moving back to the second shift so he could sleep at night again.  

I fear that is what is happening to some of you. I get messages each week “Sorry, I missed the zoom meeting, I overslept,” or “I just got up and didn’t think of the meeting.” Seriously

folks, my zoom meetings are at 2 in the afternoon. You ought to be up by then. How are you ever going to readjust to school hours when you’re used to sleeping until after school gets out?

I’ll tell you right now, it’s gonna be torture. (And yes, sleep deprivation is an extreme form of torture as defined by the United Nations.)

Your body wants to sleep at night, after 4 million years of evolution, it’s hard-wired to do that. Sure, you can stay up late but there’s a price to be paid for that. Your brain needs, really, really needs to sleep. While you’re dozing, it’s hard at work processing all the things that happened to you since the last time you slept. If you’re robbing your brain of sleep, you’re messing with your brain - really, you’re messing with you ‘cause your brain is the

real you. Arms, legs, lungs, hair and eyes are just appendages to move, feed, protect and inform your brain. 

I know you want to stay up late - I remember how freeing that felt when I was young, but rest assured, you need your sleep. You need to sleep at night, not all day long. 

Don’t be like my machinist friend, and risk messing up your sleep to the point where it almost impossible to recover. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Milkweed Bugs, Thursday, May 7, 2020

My last observation was Sunday, so it’s been four days since my last observation.  Today, I will be sure to include a picture of each mini-habitat.

• Mini-habitat #1 A few of the nymphs have gotten really big. (See photo)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Mini-habitat #2 There are still almost all the nymphs near the cotton and sunflower seeds.. (See photo)
• 

• Mini-habitat #4 Both original adults are still alive. No mating observed recently There are molted exoskeletons all over the habitat. I tried to get a picture of one -that black thing near the top of the picture is an exoskeleton that was molted from a developing milkweed bug. (See photo) 

• Mini-habitat #5 I could not find the last remaining adult today. I will check again in a few days. The clutch I found a few observations ago seems to be slowly turning a reddish/orange color. (See picture)
  

• Mini-habitat #7 The last adult in this habitat is on the water supply paper towel but is barley moving at all. It does not appear to be drinking. When I jostled the bag it seemed to slowly move with great effort. We might be near the end of the line for this habitat. (See picture)
  

• Mini-habitat - Extras - It is milkweed bug mayhem in this habitat. There are lots of bugs of many different sizes.  They are growing fast.  (See picture)
  

I will make more observations on Monday of next week…watch your email for a notification of when I post.

Stay safe!

Contact information: 

Remind: text @497h7k to 81010

Email: mmckellar@lowell.k12.ma.us