Just a tick. Do you have these?

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Sydney, Australia

I went for a walk near the beach at Curl Curl in Sydney and my Mum found this on her back afterwards. It is a tick, a blood sucking external parasite. We think this one is a paralysis tick. Do you have ticks in your country? They seem to need a humid environment.

a blood-sucking tick

The World of the Scribbly Gum

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Sydney, Australia

In Australia, we have many species of eucalyptus trees or gum trees. One interesting tree is the scribbly gum – called such becaue it looks like someone has scribbled on it. In fact the scribbles are caused by the larva of a scribbly gum moth. We pulled off a small peice of loose bark. What we found underneath was a whole world of minibeasts.

We took the photos of a few other things but they seemed to be BMP files which we can’t upload. How can we stop this from happening?

The legs of an ugly bug in the bark

Eggs in a web under the bark.

A bug made these scribbles

Skin

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Sydney, Australia

This wart is on the sole of a girl's foot. It grows in instead of out.

: This is a small wart on a boy’s finger.

In our class we have been learning about the human body. Today we have been learning about skin. Austrlia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. This is because we can play outside all year round because of our mild climate. Aussies like to go to the beach a lot. This reslts in our skin getting damaged. Our first lot of images are of warts. When you look at them closely, you can see it has lots of ‘fingers’.

This large wart is on a girl's elbow. It was bigger and drier.

Citric acid,Tartaric acid crystals and Jelly crystals

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Sydney, Australia

: citric-acidx40

: citric-acidx140

: jelly-crystals-x140

: jelly-crystalsx401.jpg

: tartaric-acidx40-on-yellow

: tartaricacidx140-on-yellow1.jpg

Crystals

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Sydney, Australia

Josh brought in some bicarb soda crystals. It just looked like a powder.

Seaweed – interesting stuff

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Sydney, Australia

Shell on seaweedX100

On the leaf of a piece of seaweed x50

These looked like flowers on the seaweed

Schools in Sydney are on vacation until the end of January. I went to the beach where it was very weedy today. I thought I would look at what the seaweed looked like under the miscope. It is fascinating how a tiny piece of seaweed looks so different up close. I can see why marine biology is so popular.

A new investigation

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Sydney, Australia

IS it merino wool, nylon or angora?

Our teacher has a garment that is soft and knitted. It says on the label that it is made up of merino wool, nylon and angora. This fibre was taken from that item of clothing and is shown at the hiest magnification on the celestron. Is it nylon, merino wool or angora? Nylon is a synthetic, a merino is a type of sheep in Australia and angora is a rabbit (we think). We think it maybe angora because rabbits are soft and smooth and the edge of this fibre is smooth. When we looked at wool from a carpet it looked rough like the damaged hair on a shampoo ad.

Sandy claws

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Sydney, Australia

crab claw

Hermit crabs are soft body crabs that live in the shell of a sea snail. As they grow, they need to change to a bigger shell. Soemtimes they fight other crabs to get a desired shell.

They are often found on the beach but will withdraw into their shell for protection. When you place them in the sand, they did into the sand to hide from predators. This was found on the same beach as the blue bottles, at Ocean beach, just north of Sydney.

We wonder what the hair like structures are on the shell. Do they help them grab on to their prey?

joint on a hermit crab

Bluebottle

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Sydney, Australia

This is a blue bottle washed up on sand.

A bluebottle is not a jellyfish, although it looks like one. It floats on the water being pushed with the current and the breeze. It has a stinging tail, that can attack unwary swimmers or fish.

It is made up of multiple animals called zooids. Each group of zooids do a specific task. For example, a group of zooids may make up the tenticles.

These are the bluebottle`s air sack, stinger and tail.

: A close up of the bluebottle’s stinging tail X140 MiScope

: This is a blue bottle washed up on sand

Horton really did hear a who!

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Sydney, Australia

: Wattle flowers are like little yellow balls3-5mm across

: Wattel flower has no visible petals, just stigma and style and filiments and anthers.

The other animals laughed at Horton the elephant when he heard creatures on a tiny flower. Yet these little wattle blossoms are only 3-5mm in diameter and they are crawling with bugs. Wattle is Australia’s national flower and where it gets its green and gold sporting colours from.