The Educating Insects – edukujące owady | Sebastian Pilichowski, Zbigniew Zawada | EDUKACJA BIOLOGICZNA I ŚRODOWISKOWA 3/2014 65 The Educating Insects Introduction What do we need? The insects are becoming more and more popular 1) An insectarium. A terrarium/ enclosure which is – edukujące owady pets in Poland. Among them, the most popular are ants, adjusted for keeping and breeding the chosen in- butterflies, mantises, orthopterans, phasmids and roa- sects. The insectariums vary in their constructions Didactical material ches. Some other groups, such as bees, are important – that is due to different needs of various groups or domestic animals. Others – like flies – are used as mo- species. – materiał dydaktyczny dels in scientific and criminal experiments. The reasons 2) A place. It can be a shelf, table or teachers desk. for keeping such animals are various. One keeps them Better not to place the insectarium next to the win- in English and Polish for fun, another one for education, research, or as fee- dow because the sun may rise the temperature to – po angielsku i po polsku der insects (for example for mantids, amphibians, repti- dangerous level and kill the insects. les...). 3) The will. The teacher and children, pupils, students Sebastian Pilichowski, Zbigniew Zawada People in Poland, especially adults, are affraid of in- MUST HAVE a will to keep the animals at school. sects. When ask those people about the base of this fear, Of course, at the beginning the most important is NAUKA they often cannot find an answer. Sometimes they say the teacher who should transfer his/her passion to that the insect can sting or bite. They are not aware that the students. Secondly, the teacher is the one who their own dogs or cats can bite much stronger, leading is mostly responsible for the health and life of the sometimes to very severe injuries. Another reason for class-pet. Polish version: pp. 73–76 fearing the insects is the flying ability. It is not very im- 4) A permission of parents. This is a very difficult is- portant that birds can do that either; birds are beautiful sue. How to explain to the parents the need of kee- Illustrations: pp. 77–81 or „sweet”, but insects are not. Only one group usually ping a class-pet, an insect-class-pet? Many of them exceeds „the ugliness of insects” – these are butterflies. will be sceptical due to the common fear of insects. SZKOŁA They are insects capable of flying, but they fly gently and The teacher should delicately explain the role of the Wersja po polsku: ss. 73–76 their wings show various patterns in different colours. chosen pet in education. Second option is putting Ilustracje: ss. 77–81 But even in this group there are „winners” and „losers”. an insectarium into the biology-class or laborato- The winners are day butterflies, while the losers are ry, or even corridor and exposing it to all children, moths, even though many of them are really colourful! pupils and students (as well as guest of the kinder- To provide some sympathy to these important for garden/ school). This option needs a permission of biosphere animals, we give examples of insects which the director. KRÓTKO can be breed at schools, or even kindergardens. Here we 5) A permission of the director. The teacher should explain the reasons for breeding, as well as hints how to make it clear to the director that there is a need for mgr Sebastian Pilichowski: Uniwersytet Zielonogórski keep these animals, and most of all, we want to expose keeping an insect-pet. Then the director can help the importance of understanding the roles of insects in the teacher in persuading the sceptical parents. the world which is inhabited by them and us. The strong argument may be that this is still rare method of supporting the education, even though it was described in books from 19th and 20th century. EDUKACJA BIOLOGICZNA I ŚRODOWISKOWA | ebis.ibe.edu.pl | [email protected] | © for the article by the Authors 2014 © for the edition by Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych 2014 The Educating Insects – edukujące owady | Sebastian Pilichowski, Zbigniew Zawada | EDUKACJA BIOLOGICZNA I ŚRODOWISKOWA 3/2014 66 Part I. The role of insects in the biosphere a huge impact, in the world of nature. At the same time manipulations, such as transfering some flies to another the insects are huge and old part with an unmeasured bottle to establish new population, or to a terrarium to Among known animal species, insects species com- impact on the world of nature. feed a predator. Good solution in the place of a bottle prise over 70% of them (IUCN statistics of main animal with a piece of fabric, is a small plastic container with groups). They inhabited and conquered soil, water and Part II. A guide – how to keep insects at school? an original lid. In that lid, a hole can be cut out (about air. They live in almost all known types of ecosystems. 1 – 1,5 cm diameter). That hole is plugged with a piece of In general, the insects: a kitchen sponge. The sponge will provide a ventilation FLIES. Order Diptera. • are responsible for pollination of large group of and can be sprayed to rise the air humidity within the plants, Which one? Fruit flies Drosophila( spp.), domestic container. Also, the sponge can be easily unplugged to • are partly responsible for decomposition of dead flies Musca( domestica). let some flies fly/ walk out. organisms, Terrarium. Flies are usually bred for genetics-clas- In the case of feeding many young mantises, pre- • are transfering other organisms (often infective for ses purposes or as food-insects for pets. They can be pare some food-mix or squeezed fruit and put them on humans, other animals and plants) in their own bred in the plastic food-containers, cut bottles, etc. the bottom of a cut bottle. Cover the bottle with a mesh bodies (inter alia viruses, bacterias, protozoans, Conditions. Maggots of the house fly and other si- which will prevent the mantises from escaping, but will NAUKA fungi) or on their body surface (inter alia fungi, milar in size species can be bought in the fishing shop. let the flies get into the bottle. In a short time of few mites, pseudoscorpions), They are not challenging. The maggots from the fishing days, many fruit flies will appear, becoming a resurgent • are food-base for uncountable number of orga- shop are already big and start to pupate soon. The pupas food base. It is important to spray the bottle once a day; nisms, enclosed within pupariums can be put into the terra- the food-mix, feed-fruit must not dry. • are important elements of local and global systems rium (as preys) with mantises, assassin bugs, predatory Common problems. such as food webs. Their role within those systems katydids, and other pets. Fruit flies are easy to keep. On A. Pay attention and close tightly the container with is not limited to „eat or be eaten” but the bottom of the cut bottle put a mix of yeasts, shred flies. They are able to find the smallest opening and fly • the insects also limit populations of some plant (e.g. apple) or squeezed fruit (e.g. banana), sugar and away. It gets worse when many of them escape and fly SZKOŁA species, or let them grow and develop, water. The food-mix should keep moisture, and prevent everywhere. • the same goes for other invertebrates considered the flies from drowning at the same time. A few days B. Too much water added to the food-mix. If there is as pests (for example ladybirds eating aphids, after preparing a bottle with the food-mix and leaving it a risk of flies getting drown, put a paper towel to the mix parasitoids killing various life stages of butterfli- e.g. in the kitchen, cover it with a piece of fabric and tie and let it soak some water up. es, dipterans, coleopterans, etc.), it with a rubber band. It is good to put some wood wool C. There are fungi in the container with flies. It is • at the same time they may be called pests, when or cut a piece of a raschel bag (the potatoes and onions probably due to too long period of using the same food- appear in big numbers on plantations and sto- are often sold in it). Those elements will help the flies to -mix. Transfer the flies population to another container KRÓTKO rehouses, avoid drowning and will make the walking-space bigger and clean the one with overused food-mix. • transport seeds and spores (for example ants), for unwinged flies. The fruit flies without wings can be Observations. • provide precious products (for example honey, silk, obtained from breeders or institutes teaching and stu- A. Holometabolic insect life cycle. dyes). dying genetics. It is also possible to establish a lineage by B. Learning breeding the feeder insects. collecting wing-less individuals in a second bottle, even C. Observation of the fruit-fly external morphology Each of the above roles may be considered positive though it is an arduous activity. The fruit-flies are light- under the microscope. or negative in our view of interest. Nevertheless, we – -attracted. Thus, they will migrate within a bottle from D. Observation of the fruit-fly maggot external humans – are only a small and young part, but with dark place to the source of light. This feature may help in morphology under the microscope. EDUKACJA BIOLOGICZNA I ŚRODOWISKOWA | ebis.ibe.edu.pl | [email protected] | © for the article by the Authors 2014 © for the edition by Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych 2014 The Educating Insects – edukujące owady | Sebastian Pilichowski, Zbigniew Zawada | EDUKACJA BIOLOGICZNA I ŚRODOWISKOWA 3/2014 67 E.