Crickets Investigation

Cricket Background Research: Crickets have some type of relation to grasshoppers. They come from the genus Orthoptera, this genus consists of crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts. The cricket consumes anything from meat to plants. At times they even consume each other. They live under rocks and logs in meadows, and they are also nocturnal. They only come out at night to hunt and feed. They are prey to spiders, wasps, beetles, birds, rodents, and lizards. In order for them to mate the male cricket rubs their forewings to attract their mates. While the female crickets lay eggs in the soil. The crickets also play an important factor in the ecosystem. They help breakdown plant material, renewing soil minerals. A negative impact they have on the ecosystem is that they injure seedlings, and male cricket songs can be loud and obnoxious.

Question: Which food choice will the crickets prefer?

Hypothesis: If we give the crickets a choice of apples and celery then they will eat the apples because based on other observations they prefer apples.

Digital Picture:

Crickets in container with celery and apples

Data Table:

Explanation: what I did was at first we placed both options (the celery and apples) into the container. After I put the crickets (two) into the container along with the choices. After, my partner and I recorded what we saw so far between the crickets and their new environment we also came to the conclusion that both crickets liked both options.

Conclusion: When two crickets were placed into the container with both options of celery or apples, at first both crickets were fond of the apple option. But when the other option (the celery) was placed closer to them they began to take a liking to both the celery and apples. The evidence that supports this is that one cricket at first only preferred the apples, but when another cricket was placed with it they both seemed to like both of the options.

classification challenge





Pink Starfish

Kingdom: Animalia(from the animal kingdom)

Phylum: Echinodermata(marine invertebrates)

Class: asteroidea(meaning sea stars)

Order: forcipulatida(order of starfish)

Family: asteriidae(animal life)
Genus: pisaster(pacific sea stars)
species: brevispinus(fast growing0

summary: My starfish can be found in sand or mud when catching its prey. They may also be found on rocks ao pillars when searching for prey such as barnacles and tubeworms. It doesn't tolerate being out of water very well. the only time that a pink sea star may be seen out of the water is during low tides. It usually lives in the water at depths of 600 feet. It is able to regenerate as long as it still has its central disk. The Pink starfish also has eyespots on each of its arms to see in each direction to be aware of predators. The Pink starfishes predators consist of sharks, manta rays, and large bony fish.

This week in science #6

      This week in science we continued our investigation based on cricket's behaviors. But we took it even farther when we made questions based on whether they would prefer a wet or dry environment. After that we recorded our observations using method 1. This method allowed us to view the crickets in a way that was clear and understanding. Wherever the crickets traveled in the bin whether it was in the wet region or dry region we made a dot to represent which environment they preferred. Later in the week we used another method to classify jellybeans called the dichotomous key method. It was an exciting project but at times became frustrating.

      This week in science I learned about other ways to observe and record my findings about animal behaviors. I also learned a method to classify animal characteristics in the future in which it will be needed in the future.

jellybeans

This week in science #5

    This week in science we continued put the final touches onto the rocket investigation. We launched them to see if what we came up with would answer our questions. For example my question was "Will the weight of the nose cone affect the rockets distance?" After launching the rockets we found our answer. The weight of the rocket's nose cone does in fact affect the rocket's distance. Later in the week we began our unit about animals. We looked at animal behavior, and partically crickets. I found it fun because we got a chance to look at funny animal videos in order to evaluate their behavior.

   This week in science I learned about animal behavior. We learned only a little of this because we just started yesterday, but enough for me to like it already. We also watched funny animal behavioral videos that made taught us things, but also made us laugh. I think that we should do more lessons this way. This week in science was a good week.