For my science fair project, I am doing it about what temperature do crickets prefer. I guessed that crickets liked warm weather because you never see crickets during the winter. In the summer, you always hear the chirping of crickets. In the winter, I always wonder where the crickets go, because they don’t chip during that time.
First, I got 10 crickets, put them in 2 containers, and then I got a heat lamp. I set one cricket container under a heat lamp for 20 mins, four different times, and saw how they reacted. I did this four different times. With the cold crickets, I put them outside in the snow. Again, I did it for 20 mins, and four different times.
Cold test
Test 1: The crickets aren’t moving much and look stiff.
Test 2: The crickets are moving a little bit more.
Test 3: The crickets are very stiff
Test 4: they… aren't moving much…
Heat test
Heat Lamp temp: 150f
Test 1: 20 mins, crickets VERY lively when i check on them
Test 2: another 20 mins, crickets going NUTS
Test 3: yet another 20 mins, crickets strangely still
Test 4: 20 mins later, they move a tiny bit more… still not much
Science Fair Abstract
Have you ever wondered were crickets go in the winter? If you think they die every winter, you’d be wrong, or else how would they magically appear in the world in the spring, summer, and fall? I want to see if crickets like the cold, or the hot. My guess is that they will like the heat, because they go away. I chose this topic because i’ve always wondered were crickets go in the winter.
For my science fair project, what I did was bought crickets and a cage with food and water. Next, I got a heat lamp and timed sessions with the crickets and the heat lamp to see how they acted. I timed it 20 minutes in between to see if there actions changed. After that, I set them out in the cold (my porch) for 20 minutes also. I tested 4 times for each of them, making about 8 tests.
For my first test for the heat lamp, the crickets were going crazy. My second test, and the crickets were being just as lively. The third test, the crickets went strangely still. The fourth test, they were moving a tiny bit more then they were the last test. For my test with coldness, they crickets don’t move very much to begin with. They move around more the second test. In the third test, they were completely dead still. They moved better than all of the tests, on my fourth test. The crickets liked the heat more, because that is what they like, and thats the climate that crickets live in.
My hypothesis was correct. The crickets did, in fact like the heat more. Crickets like the moist, warm air of the summer nights, and that is warm. I think I might do better if I test more than four times each. From this experiment, I learned why crickets don’t chirp in the winter. This is because they don’t prefer the cold. I could have bought more crickets to do the tests on, having them in two different containers, and let them do tests at the same time, instead of different times.
So, in all, the crickets seemed to like the warm heat lamp. I think this because they like the summer, and don’t go out in the winter. They seemed to be cold and stiff outside in the cold, I guess they didn’t like it. The crickets were crazy when I put them under the heat lamp, so i guess they like it.
Alanna Koskinen