Cricket Experiments

Today we conducted the cricket experiments we designed on Tuesday! They were so much fun! Five teams wanted to research whether or not our crickets were smart enough to make it through a maze to find food. The results from all five teams were inconclusive: most entomologists found that their crickets were able to make it through the mazes, but a few teams had “low performing” crickets who weren’t able to make all the way to the very end.





One team of scientists researched whether or not a cricket with a missing back leg could still jump like a cricket with two good legs. Luckily, we already had several crickets with missing legs to experiment on! They found out that their cricket could still jump! We realized that it was a very useful protective adaptation to be able to jump with only one leg.

Our last team tested whether or not crickets were afraid of other bugs. We used life-like bug models to test whether this was so (we didn’t want an actual insect fight going on!). We determined that we could tell if our crickets were afraid because they ran around quickly. We found that crickets were afraid of preying mantises and beetles but not afraid of ants and flies.
We had such a good time with our cricket experiments. We are truly thinking and asking questions like real scientists now!

We also made some excellent life cycle observations of our crickets today! Malachi noticed that one of our crickets had molted and left an exoskeleton behind. We were so excited! The cricket was pure white after he molted. What a cool example of incomplete metamorphosis!
We are also waiting patiently for our caterpillars (who have become fat and happy!) to form a chrysalis and metamorphosize. Everyday we wish for a change to happen! We will keep you updated!