The Grade 9 Warriors:
We’ve been a bit skeptical if we would get any insects – it’s been quite cool and cloudy here, with chances of frost each night. Only a few small insects on Day 1 – there seemed to be more insects inside than out. But the sun is out today and the temperature has climbed….and we have bugs! Not a lot – but we can definitely see some different species in the collection bottle.
A Malaise trap is a type of bug trap used by Entymologists For Research. They get bugs with it it is made up of black and white mesh bugs can’t see the black mesh but they fly to the white mesh into a hole in a canister of Ethanol the fumes of Ethanol puts the bugs to sleep and preserves their bodies.
Ms. Harrison’s Grade 4 class put up the trap at 9am yesterday! It was a cool 8 degrees and dewey. At recess and lunch, Austin and Grace explained the trap to the students who came to check it out. As they explained the trap, they gave out the bookmarks. Students were interested to know that all those coloured lines were the DNA barcode for insects! Six bugs had found their way in by lunchtime, even though we were all gathered around the trap.
Although it was damp and cloudy, our first check up on the Malaise trap was successful! We discovered that there were already some bugs in the trap and even as we were examining it, we observed that more bugs were attracted to the trap. We hope for another successful day of trapping tomorrow and are excited to see how the results vary with changes in weather and time! -Maryka, Joannie and Rebecca
We had a blustery start today with winds of about 30 km/h gusting up to 40 km/h. It was a cool 13 C and we were under thick cloud cover until after school let out. The Malaise Trap held strong all day and did not require any adjustments during the afternoon check-in It looks like we already have about half a dozen species of insects in the trap!
The goal of the Malaise trap is to investigate insects in the environment of our school’s yard. We are excited to study the bugs and compare them to other schools across the Nation using their DNA barcode. We hope to learn what species of insects live in this area compared to other schools.
The trap set up went well today at lunch time. The tent poles and mesh parts were set up with ease while we had to hammer the pegs into the tough ground to keep the strings tight and the tent sturdy. We then put caution tape around the trap to protect the area. The location of the trap is next to the school’s turf and basketball net off to the side of the school yard.
We are super excited to see what we will collect – can’t wait till tomorrow!
Written by: Amy & Anna (Grade 9 students)
We could say it all started on Friday with the set up….but really we have been chomping at the bit since Monday. So excited to be part of this great program and eagerly awaiting to be contributors of data!
We are an enthusiastic bunch of Grade 6 students from Crestview Public School in Kitchener. For the rest of Canada, we are about an hour west of Toronto. Our school is surrounded by Ash, Maple and Walnut trees which is pretty typical for this area, and at the moment we are enjoying the last « hurrah » of summer with temperatures in the mid to high 20’s everyday.
We decided on a somewhat secluded spot at the back of the Kindergarten play area. We had to adjust the caution tape to be lower so that the little Kindies would not crawl under to sneak a peak. Our tent is surrounded by trees and bushes and by the looks of it LOTS of flying insects!
Glad to part of this awesome team. We are enjoying reading the other posts and looking where all the other teams are from.
Lovin’ our #SMTPselfie
Just a quick note from a very proud teacher…….over the weekend some teenagers decided to rip down our caution tape and remove some poles from the tent. Some of our more local students made a point of checking on the tent every day. They saw what had happened, scoured the playground, found the parts and put the tent back together good as new. I am so proud of this group for their pride in ownership, dedication to this project and great sense of responsibility! Thank you 6’s! Mrs. Cochrane 🙂
Mme Sooley’s class set up our trap this morning on the Rothesay common. We just need to add the collection bottles on Monday, and then see what’s inside!
Then, all 4 of Mme Sooley’s Science classes made some predictions. They were asked, ‘What kind of insects do you think we will find in our trap?’ The most popular guesses were:
Sundre High School in Sundre Alberta scouted out a great spot for our trap – only to realize there was a big « adventure race » scheduled for the area. We are rethinking our placement, and are likely going to move to a more secure location.
Glad to report that our Grade 5 class has set up our Malaise Trap last Friday, and it weathered a very windy and rainy North Vancouver weekend. The collection bottle has now been added, and we’ve seen flying insects in the surrounding bush and gardens nearby.
