EXTRA CREDIT -

Counting Cricket Chirps

Procedure
Go outside at night or early in the morning when you can hear crickets chirping.
Pick out the chirping sound of a single cricket.
Count how many chirps the cricket makes in 14 seconds. (youll need a stopwatch, or a helper with a second-hand on their watch)
How many? Write this number down. ____________________ = chirps in 14 seconds

Do this two more times, counting how many chirps the cricket makes in 14-second intervals.
Write these numbers down.
2
nd
count: _____________= chirps in 14 seconds
3
rd
count: ______________ = chirps in 14 seconds
What day is it? _______(mo) ________(day) __________(yr)
What is the time of day when you counted the chirps? _____________
(time within 15 minutes) For example if you counted at 9:12PM, then mark it 9:15pm

How close were the numbers for the 3 counts to one another? ___________________________________________________________________
Average the number of chirps in the 14-second intervals.
Divide the total by the number of counts (3) to get the average

(1
st
count + 2
nd
count + 3
rd
count) = _________ total
3 Average 14 second cricket count = ____________

Add 40 to the average number of chirps in 14 seconds.
This equation (which is one of the oldest and easiest to use cricket-thermometer equations) is published in the Farmers' Almanac. It should give you the
approximate temperature in degrees F. According to the cricket, what is the temperature? __________________ degrees Fahrenheit.

Check the temperature on an online website like http://www.wunderground.com/ or from an outdoor thermometer where you counted chirps.
Use your address or zipcode where you counted the crickets if you look online.

How close is the temperature based on the cricket chirps to the actual temperature? Within ________ degrees.

If they are different, by how much are they different? Why do you think they might be different?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Based on the Farmers' Almanac, you can use a cricket to tell the temperature in degrees C by counting the number of chirps in 25 seconds, dividing this number by
3 and then adding 4.
According to the cricket, what is the temperature in degrees C? ____________________________ How accurate is this? ___________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Counting the Chirps of Fall
Summary
A close-up view of the sound-producing structure on the wing of a field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus).

Fall evenings are filled with the sounds of crickets chirping, as males try to attract potential mates. Like many insects, crickets produce sound by rubbing body parts
together. To chirp, the teeth-like structures on a wingshown here in detailare rubbed against the opposite wing. The rate of chirping varies according to temperature, and
in 1897, American physicist Amos Dolbear formulated a law for using the cricket as a thermometer.
Technical Notes
The image shows a digitally-colored scanning electron micrograph of a specimen collected in the Finger Lakes Region, NY. The field of view of this image is 0.5mm wide.
Credits
Image courtesy of Ted Kinsman PhD, School of Photographic Arts & Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
If this activity is completed and correct:
Regular Biology I :
Will forgive a zero on a DAILY assignment with a 50%
Will forgive a failing grade on a DAILY assignment with
an additional 20 points.
Honors Biology I (Pre-AP) : will assist a failing grade (below
70%) on a single DAILY assignment with an additional 11
points.