King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
Transcription of Science Time video – Insects and Spiders
The video for this transcript can be found on the Questacon website at:
http://canberra.questacon.edu.au/sciencetime/
Transcription from video:
Dion
Hi, welcome to Questacon Science Time. My name is Dion.
BJ
And I’m BJ.
Dion
And today we’re talking about insects and spiders. Come with us.
BJ
Let’s go.
Dion
So, hello everyone. Who’s got insects and spiders at home. Hands up who
has insects and spiders at home. You do? What sort of insects and spiders
does everyone have at home?
Child
I’ve got a redback.
Dion
You’ve got a redback? Does anyone else have a redback at home? Do we
go near spiders if we see them at home?
Children
No!
Child
I saw one in my garden on day.
Dion
Did you see one in your garden? You might have seen a spider in your
garden as well. They can be all over the place. When you see a spider
though, who do you fetch do you think?
Child
Mummy or Daddy.
Dion
Yes, Mum or Dad you fetch, well done. Now, what other insects do you have
at home.
Child
You get a broom to kill spiders.
Dion
You can get a broom to shoo them away as well. Now, what other insects do
you have at home? What sort of insects, does anybody know?
BJ
Some in your garden at home.
Dion
I’ve actually got an insect here. I’ve got a pretend insect. We’re going to
look at this insect here. What is this insect, does anyone know?
Child
Grasshopper.
Child
That’s a toy.
Dion
It’s a grasshopper. It is a toy.
Child
A grasshopper.
Dion
It’s a grasshopper. Has anyone ever seen a grasshopper before? Hands up
if you have.
Making science fun and relevant for everyone
King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
Children
I have. I have.
Dion
And what colour is this grasshopper?
Children
Green.
Dion
Green, well done. Now, we have some things on this grasshopper’s head
here. Does anyone know what they are called?
Child
Antenna
Child
Ears.
Dion
Antenna, well done. They are called antenna. And antenna are a little bit
like insect hands. Does this insect have hands?
Children
No, yes.
Dion
No, I think it would look a little bit silly with hands actually. So it uses it’s
antenna to feel with like we use our hands. Now, how many legs do you
think this grasshopper has?
Child
Two!
Dion
Two?
Child
Five.
Child
Six.
Dion
Well how about we count them all together. We’re going to count them all
together. Ready?
Everyone One, two, three, four, five, six.
BJ
You were right.
Child
I said six.
Dion
You went very well. I’m very impressed.
Child
Can we play with that?
Dion
We can play with it very, very soon. But first we’re going to look at another
insect now. This one here. Now what is this insect? Does anybody know?
Children
A bee.
Dion
It looks a little bit like a bee, doesn’t it. It could be a fly as well. It’s got it’s
antenna at the top and it’s also got some legs. How many legs does this
bee or fly have?
Child
One, two, three, four.
Dion
We’ll count them all together, ready? We’ll count them all together.
Everyone One, two, three, four, five, six.
Making science fun and relevant for everyone
King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
Dion
Six legs. This one’s got six. So the grasshopper has six and the fly has six as
well. So we’ll look at another insect. This is a bit harder, you may not have
seen one of these before.
Child
That’s a stick insect.
Dion
It looks a lot like a stick insect. Does anyone know what this isect is called?
Child
No.
Dion
This is called a praying mantis. Can everyone say praying mantis?
Everyone Praying mantis.
Dion
This you may have seen in your garden as well.
Child
And it can spray water.
Dion
It may beable to spray water. It’s got these weird legs at the front. We’re
going to count them all together and we’ll see how many it’s got. Ready?
Everyone One, two, three, four, five, six.
Dion
Six legs again. So our grasshopper, our fly and our praying mantis all have
six legs. Now, this is one of my favorite insects. What is this one here?
Children
Butterfly.
Dion
It’s a butterfly, well done. Has anyone got, hands up who has butterflys at
home.
Children
Me. Me.
Dion
Have you got butterflys at home? They are very pretty. What colour’s this
butterfly?
Children
Blue, purple, black.
Dion
Blue and a bit purple and black as well. Very pretty. Now, butterflys also
have six legs as well. So they are insects. So we have all of our insects have
six legs.
Child
No, they’ve got two legs.
Dion
It’s actually got six on the bottom. Six legs. So do all of these animals, all
these insects do they look the same or different?
Children
Different
Dion
They do look different, don’t they. They don’t look the same
Child
But this looks different.
Dion
It does look different. But all of these insects, even though they look really
different, all have six legs. Another thing they have is also three body parts.
So they have a head, something called a thorax and an abdomen as well.
All those different bits there. So they have three body parts. So, six legs and
three body parts our insects have. Now I’ve got another creature here. We
Making science fun and relevant for everyone
King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
have to decide what is this creature. Can anyone tell me what is this
creature?
Children
A spider.
Dion
A spider. Now, is a spider and insect do you think?
Children
No. No.
Child
It’s an arachnid.
Dion
Yes, well done! I’ve very impressed. The spider isn’t actually an insect. It’s
something called an arachnid. Can everyone say arachnid?
Everyone Arachnid.
Dion
Well done. And how many legs does a spider or an arachnid have?
Children
Eight! Eight.
Dion
Well, let’s count and have a look. Ready?
Everyone One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Dion
It’s got eight legs. So is that more or less than an insect?
Children
More.
Dion
It’s got more, hasn’t it? So an insect has six legs and a spider has eight
legs. Now, a spider also has two body parts when the insect has got three.
So they’re a bit different. A bit different. So spiders are arachnids.
Child
It’s yellow and black.
Dion
Very, very true. Well done. So have you got any of these insects at home?
Hands up who’s got one of these insects at home. You might have had lots
of different insects at home like these ones. So what we’re going to do now
is –
BJ
We’ve got a real insect. I’ll go get it.
Dion
We do have a real insect. So we’re going to have a look at our real insect
now. This insect is called a golieth stick insect. And it’s green. Now why do
you think the stick insect is green?
Child
‘Cause it goes on sticks and…
Dion
Because it goes on sticks and leaves and it can hide. So this is our golith
stick insect. Now, is this a big insect of a small insect?
Children
Big!
Dion
It’s a big insect, isn’t it? And we’ll count her legs, ready? This is Sticky and
we’ll count her legs.
Everyone One, two, three, four, five, six.
Dion
So is Sticky an insect?
Children
Yes.
Making science fun and relevant for everyone
King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
Dion
Yes, it is because she’s got six legs.
Child
That one is like this one.
Dion
It is. It looks a little bit like our praying mantis. And it’s got the same
amount of legs. So we’ve got lots of different insects in our gardens. And
this one, she likes to eat gum leaves and all that sort of stuff and she has
to eat quite a lot to keep her self healthy because she is a very big insect.
So everyone, ready set go. Find you grown-up and explore the room. See
what you can play with. Go have a play.
BJ
Go have a play, off you go.
Dion
See what you can find.
BJ
While everyone here is having a play. Let’s go have a closer look at spiders.
Come with me. Hello boys and girls. Todays we’re going to have a closer
look at spiders. Here, look on my hand. I’ve got a toy spider here. How
many legs does a spider have, do you remember? That’s right. Eight. Let’s
count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. This is a toy spider. But,
today at Questacon we are very luck to have a real, live spider. Her name is
Savina. Let’s have a closer look. Now, Savina is a trananchela spider.
Another name for tranachela’s is whitleing spiders because they rub parts
of their body together to make a hissing, whitling sound. Now, you can see
she has eight legs. Can you see all her legs? And she has two body parts.
One at the front where all the legs are attached and that big, round one at
the back. And at the very back she has a little bit sticking out and that’s
where her spinning web comes out of. Now, tranachelas don’t live in a web
up in a tree. They live on the ground. Often in a little hole. And they line
their hole with nice, soft spider web just like putting carpet on the floor.
Now, Savina here, the tranachela, she likes to eat insects. Sometimes little
baby frogs or lizards. And sometimes even other spiders. Yep. But Savina,
she’s looking a little bit tired at the moment, isn’t she? She’s not moving
around much at all. So I think we’ll leave Savina to have a bit of a sleep.
And while she’s sleeping let’s go back to Science Time and check out what
everyone’s doing.
Dion
So, we’ve talked about a lot of different sorts of insects and spiders
today. And now we’re going to talk about something called camoflage. Now,
does anyone know, what is camoflage?
Child
Hiding.
Dion
Well done, it is hiding. So here we’ve got a picture of a spider trying to
camoflage. So can anyone see the spider? (sitting down on your bottom for
me, sitting down). Can you see the spider? He’s hiding pretty well, isn’t he?
He’s doing a really good job this spider. And this spider is using camoflage.
Now, animals can camoflage is a couple of different ways. They can try to
camoflage with colour, like this spider here. And they can also pretend to be
something else that they’re not. Now, we’re going to have a look at this
butterfly now. What colour is this butterfly?
Making science fun and relevant for everyone
King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
Child
Blue. Purple
Dion
Blue and purple, well done. Now we’re going to have this – if the butterfly
flys and lands in this flower here do you think it’s very well hidden?
Children
No.
Dion
No, not really. You can see it pretty easyly, can’t you? So It’s not really
camoflaged. Now if we get this flower and our butterfly flyes and lands on
this flower is it hidden now? It’s pretty well hidden isn’t it. It’s well
camoflaged. It’s using it’s colour to try to hide on the flower. So we’re going
to look at some different insects now that camoflage. We’re going to have a
look at some stick insects.
Child
I saw them.
Dion
Have you seen them before?
Child
Me to. Me to.
Dion
Now, stick instects, they also use colour and they also pretend to be
something. They look a lot like sticks. We have some baby stick insects
here. We’re going to open it up and have a look at some of these baby stick
insects. Here we are. Now these are really, really small insects. I’m going to
take one out now. We’re going to have a look at our stick insect and see
how well they camoflage. If I can get him out. He’s a little friskey. They are
very, very young these ones. There we are. Now, can you all see that our
stick insect looks a lot like a stick. Can you see? So, this is the camoflage
that the stick insect uses, it pretends to be a stick and it also uses colour
as well. Do you think you’d beable to see this on a tree?
Child
There’s ones on the leaves.
Dion
There are the ones on the leaf as well. There are all sort of different insects
that us camoflage. So we’ve got some things now for you guys to take home
with you. And boys and girls at home you can get these ones as well. First of
all we have a parent information sheet which gives you and idea of things
that you can do at home. Activities and all that sort of stuff. Sitting on your
bottoms for me guys. Sitting on your bottoms. Good work.
Child
There’s one at the glass.
Dion
There is one at the glass. Now we also have a colouring in sheet. Now can
anyone tell me what is this in the colouring in sheet.
Child
A spider.
Dion
It’s a spider. And how many legs does a spider have?
Child
One, two, three, four, five…
Dion
Eight. Eight legs. They’ve got eight legs spiders. And how many legs does
and insect have?
Child
One, two…
Making science fun and relevant for everyone
King Edward Terrace Canberra ACT
PO Box 5322 Kingston ACT 2604
t +61 2 6270 2800 f +61 2 6270 2808
www.questacon.edu.au
Dion
Six. Six legs. Spiders have eight legs and our insects have six legs. And you
can colour these ones in at home which is quite a lot of fun. Now before we
go we’re going to all look at the boys and girls at home. Can everyone look
at the boys and girls at home. Wave to the boys and girls at home and say
see you next Science Time.
Everyone See you next Science Time.
Making science fun and relevant for everyone