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New Hampshire 2003-2004 Homepage
This is the third year of the New Hampshire "Ugly Bug Contest" The contest is patterned after contests held in Arizona by Marilee Sellers of Northern Arizona University and the Oklahoma Microscopy Society's Ugly Bug Contest. The contest is open to all public and private elementary schools in the State of New Hampshire and is suported in part by the State of New Hampshire Department of Education.
Rules and Instructions:
Participants in New Hampshire's elementary schools will collect their bugs in the fall. Then the ugliest bug will be chosen (only one bug per school). A description is sent along with the bug to the collection site. Then it is just a question of waiting. There it will be prepared, examined, and photographed with a light microscope and a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) A team of judges will choose the ugliest bug.
The winning school will receive a high quality stereomicroscope and two stereomicroscopes will be given to the 2nd. place winners. These microscopes are donated by the Sargent-Welch Company. All participating schools will receive a poster showing light microscope and scanning electron microscope photos of your bug along with a couple of measurement exercises
A large view of this year's poster can be obtained by clicking on the poster icon on the Right. This image can then be downloaded and printed out for classroom use.
The complete rules and deadlines can be found by clicking on the following link.
Sample Preparation
When your sample arrives it is given an identification number (so we can keep track of it) and catalog
number(so we know who sent what bug with what description). If the bug is large then only the interesting - and hopefully "ugly" - head is removed. The bug is then slowly dried before being mounted on a "stub" (support) with double-sided tape. Examination is done under a reflecting light microscope to find the really "ugly" parts. The stub containing the sample is put in a "Sputter Coater" which coats the bug with a very thin layer of gold. When the bug goes into the scanning electron microscope (SEM) the beam of electrons (rather than light) scans over the sample and the secondary electrons that are given off are collected and converted into a picture. (Further information on how a SEM operates can be found at the University of Iowa.
Links
Click on LINKS to got to a page showing background information to help you in your identification.
Results: Contest Results for 2001-2!
Results:
Contest Results for
2002-3!
Puzzle:
Put him/her back together!
