Beyond Black Boxes: Taking Crickets out into the World

Crickets can be used to collect scientific data such as temperature and light readings. Field trips out into the community provided a reason to use the crickets to develop scientific instruments. Girls put crickets in their pockets, attached crickets to weather balloons, experimented with a variety of sensors as they tried to solve questions about the world. Girls asked questions such as: Is the air temperature warmer or cooler the higher you go? Is fresh water cooler than salt water? How often do gerbils use their exercise wheel at night?

These are the types of experiments we have tried:

Take a cricket home

Each girl in the group was given her own cricket in a special pouch. We found that having ownership of a cricket really helped the girls feel invested in collecting data. Each cricket was programmed to collect temperature data (this was also done with a light sensor) over a certain period of time (in this case overnight).

The girls wrote the program for the cricket and determined the intervals at which the temperature should be recorded. The girls also decided at what time they would all, at their respective homes, turn their crickets on. Crickets were placed in unusual situations (in the refrigerator, on top of a microwave, on a windowsill...).

All the girls recorded the conditions for their experiment in their journals (what the weather was like, if anything unusual was happening...). The next day, each girl uploaded the cricket data, graphed her results, and shared the story of her data with the group. Girls became amateur detectives as they tried to determine which members of their family had gone for a midnight snack.

Chocolate Walk

One winter day a group of girls went on a temperature walk in the South End neighborhood of Boston. Equipped with crickets and temperature sensors, girls actively measured temperature as they walked from the Girl Scout's Computer Clubhouse to the Back Bay T Station--touching sensors to metal railings, icy car windows, and finally touching their sensor to a cup of HOT CHOCOLATE. For more on the chocolate walk see the case study written by Professor Robbie Berg who led this walk. Robbie's Chocolate Walk

Putting a Cricket in Your Pocket- Boston Harbor Islands Example

During the Summer of 1998 we spent a lot of time exploring Boston's waterways. We spent several days exploring the Boston Harbor by boat. On one of our excursions we recorded temperature for the entire day. Later we worked to determine whether there were temperature changes between being on the boat or on one of the Harbor Islands. Wherever you decide to go, stick a cricket in your pocket!

Inspiration