Names: ______Period: ______

Cricket Chirping: Weather or not?

The Old Farmer’s Almanac is a book published annually that uses time-tested natural techniques, not Doppler radar and computer models to predict long-range weather conditions, good fishing days, crop planting times and all kinds of farmer or outdoorsman information. One of the weather measuring devices the book suggests is the chirping of crickets to measure temperature. Seriously, can a cricket tell temperature or is it just attracting a mate? If crickets can respond to temperature, do any other weather conditions affect it as well?

The Task: You and one partner are to conduct an investigation to find out what factors affect the rate of cricket chirping. You will act as a scientist by conducting five separate experiments and meshing the results together to determine a big picture answer, in this case, to what guides those noisy crickets. Go to the web site:

(works best on Internet Explorer if available)

Skip the log-in request and skip the tutorial,then click on Cricket Experiment Introduction. Follow the prompts in order (even though it says choose your own order). Continue using the prompts and information until you have formulated a testable hypothesis and conducted the appropriate experiment for each of the five conditions offered in the website. The order of the experiments does not matter, but be sure to get to all five. After each experiment, write a conclusion statement only (no discussion needed until the end.)

Hypothesis:

Effect of nearby crickets on Cricket Chirp Rate
# of crickets nearby / Chirp Rate (chirps/min)

Conclusion:

Hypothesis:

Effect of humidity on cricket chirp rate
% Relative humidity / Chirp Rate (chirps/min)

Conclusion:

Hypothesis:

Effect of temperature on cricket chirp rate
Temperature
(Celsius) / Chirp Rate (chirps/min)

Conclusion:

Hypothesis:

Effect of wind speed on cricket chirp rate
Wind speed (m/sec) / Chirp Rate (chirps/min)

Conclusion:

Hypothesis:

Effect of atmospheric pressure on cricket chirp rate
Pressure
(mm Hg) / Chirp Rate (chirps/min)

Conclusion:

Summary:

When all five conditions have been tested, write a paragraph below summarizing and supporting your findings, being clear about what factors do affect cricket chirps and explain the relationship (i.e. which factors increase, decrease or have no measured effect. Lastly, refer back to the Old Farmer’s Almanac claim about low tech weather measuring and describe your confidence in that claim.