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| BBC Article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3236294.stm |
Today we started class by working through examples of symbiosis - mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Students had to think about many examples and were very good about asking questions. While they were working, students listened to a podcast about a scientist who was infected with a botfly larvae.
Botfly larvae are transferred to humans by mosquito bites and the larvae grow bigger and develop under the skin feeding on the host. This scientist was a bit strange and decided to allow the botfly larvae to develop on his head until it grew enough to leave on its own. A little gross.
You can listen the podcast here. Of course then we had to see a video of one getting removed. Also gross. Here's a
video from AnimalPlanet, although not the one I showed class.
Then we watched a video about the
candiru fish in the Amazon that swims into other fish's gills and sucks their blood - not so bad - except urine smells the same, so when people are in the water peeing, it is attracted to the people and swims up their urethras. Ouch. Amazingly, students were still actively engaged in class.
We talked about
keystone species. Keystone species are important members of the food web because they help maintain biodiversity and keep everything in balance. An example is a sea otter. Sea otters eat sea urchins and keep their population in check.
When the sea otters are removed (like when they used to be hunted for their fur), the sea urchin populations go crazy, eat all the kelp (as in many many 300 foot tall plants), and the loss of kelp leads to a drop in biodiversity because there is less food and habitat for the many other species that like to live in and on and among the kelp.
We finished class with independent work time so students could work on the National Geographic Reading (look at previous posts), their niche cartoon, and their vocabulary.
12 comments:
bot flies are nasty paracites i wouldn't want one in me. Check out youtubevideo wouldnt open for me but apparently you can see it fly after it comes out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbfudNdqSB0
-Nate Whitmer
That video wouldn't work for me either, but there are plenty of them out there. Gross!
I thought last weeks lesson was "interesting". My dad mentioned that bot flies are in horse poo and he never knew it could be in humans huh.
Botfly's are gross. Just to think about one of them living and growing inside of you is nasty. I hope i never come across a Botfly.
-Jacob Atkinson
The botflys are absolutely gross! It makes me sick just to think about one growing inside someone. if i saw one, i would freak out
-Amanda
i think it was really gross but cool because he was able to be a good scientist and observe the whole thing i would have flipped out about the whole thing
jeremiah
Last week's lesson talking about bot flies was disgusting! The video that we watched made me gag. The scientist who allowed the botfly to grow and develop inside his body was stupid for doing that.
If I ever go were bot flies are I am going to carry around slabbs of meat with me. They are creepy just thinking about one of them in my head gives me the heeby geebies.
~Jessica
Oh my goodness. The day we watched that movie was so gross but at the same time intersting to see how the guy lived with this thing in his head
-Morgan Allen
NOW A BOTFLY IS JUST GROSS..IF SOMETHING LIKE THAT WAS GROWING IN MY SKIN I DON'T THINK I COULD LIVE WITH IT..JUST LOOKING AT IT IS VOMITTING,,I JUST WANT TO KNOW.. WHY DO THEY WANT TO GET IN PEOPLE SKIN??..
Oh come on guys! They aren't that bad! Now they need love too! Not really, I must say i was absolutely grossed out too!!
- Courtney
Seriously, bot flies are probably the grossest things I've ever seen in my life. Watching the YouTube video in class made me hurt so I can't even imagine what that poor guy was feeling. GROSS.
Lindsey Jones
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