ACTIVITY 5

Cricket Jumping Contest

Teaching Objectives:

1. Students will determine what crickets eat and drink.
2. Students will determine the habitats of crickets.
3. Students will care for the crickets until the time of the contest.
4. Students will determine how far the average cricket can jump.
5. Students will work as a group to make arrangements for the jumping contest and, through trial and error, determine the best way to conduct the contest.
6. Students will record their observations of cricket behavior during the contest.

Materials Needed:

• Crickets; order from Biological Supply Houses, purchase at a bait shop, or catch in the wild
• 2 x 4's to mark lanes
• Long dowel sticks (optional) for prodding the crickets
• Containers for keeping the crickets
• Stop watches
• Tape measure

Read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain as a class. Towns has a brief discussion of Angels Camp where the story took place.

Discuss as a class how a jumping contest could be done using crickets.

1. When and where will the event be held? (open grassy area, classroom, gymnasium floor)
2. How long should the "playing field" be?
3. How many crickets should jump at one time?
4. If different "heats" are run, how will the events be timed?
5. Who will be allowed on the playing field?
6. Who will act as the judge in the case of a disputed outcome?
7. Will the teams be allowed to practice with their crickets ahead of time?
8. How long can the crickets be kept prior to the actual contest?
9. Where should the crickets be released when the contest is over?

THINGS TO CONSIDER: A playing field design which has worked successfully is laid out with lanes radiating out from a"winner's circle," somewhat like the spokes of a wheel. This keeps the contestants and their "handlers" separated. Variations with as few as two lanes would work if the crickets were started from opposite directions.

Go over the questions with the class and make a list of the information that needs to be located before the crickets are actually caught or purchased. Assign individuals or groups to locate this information and report back to the class. The students should determine how to care for and feed the crickets and how long they can be kept before the contest is held. Crickets can be obtained from pet stores, bait shops, Biological Supply Houses, or caught in the wild. Students should determine the most feasible plan for obtaining the crickets and determine how many will be needed.

Divide the class into teams. Each team needs to have a container prepared for their cricket and have a food supply ready.Arthropod Care Directory and Cricket Care have information about caring for crickets. To find information under Cricket Care, click on the red search button at the top of the page, put your cursor on the search line, type in "cricket care," click on "Search," and scroll down to "Cricket Care" on the list of choices.

Assign individual students or groups to make the actual arrangements for the contest. It is recommended that a trial run be held in order to discover any problem areas that might occur. Plans may have to be redesigned if it is determined that the contest will not work as originally planned.

Contact the school or local newspaper and advise them of the date of the contest. (It never hurts to have publicity for good things that students do.)

Have the students observe the crickets during the contest to see if physical characteristics can help determine which cricket will be the winner.

Supplemental Activities:

Have the students write a paragraph or more about what they learned about crickets from holding the contest, or have the students write a newspaper article about the contest, complete with one- or two-line headline.

Contact classes in other schools who might want to hold a contest. Share information with them. Hold a "Broad Jump Contest" and chart the longest jumps made by the winners in these contests to establish the "Cricket Jumping Champion."

Cricket Sounds