In 1897, Amos Dolbear discovered that one could tell the temperature by listening to the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds and adding 40 to get degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Peggy LeMone in 2007 found that counting the chirps in 13 seconds and adding 40 gave more accurate results. This clip uses the Old Farmers Almanac compromise of counting in 14 seconds and adding 40. Cricket stop chirping when the temperature is below 55 F. Listening to cricket outside can be like listening to a choir of random chirps. However, this observatory allows kids to easily rediscover the cricket temperature phenomena with isolated male crickets.
The Anatomy of an Ohio Field Cricket
The $1 cricket observatory made from empty 2-L soda bottles allows kids to observe crickets up close and learn about their anatomy. Crickets that are normally out of sight hiding in the grass are safely observed through a sealed bottle. Crickets are an important part of nature’s food chain being a vital food for birds, fish, lizards, snakes, and more. Without them, many species would die. It is intellectually satisfying to understand this hidden world of these crickets that we hear and are a part of summer, and yet many never see them.
Ohio Field Crickets.
Nine Ohio field crickets were captured using jars; 6 females and 3 males. Female crickets are easily identify by their ovipositor or egg layers protruding out their back between two feelers called cerci, circled in red. The males have cerci, but no oviposition and they are a smaller than females, circled in blue. A juvenile male cricket was also captured, circle in yellow. Cricket are usually not see, because they hide, however the white sand fill with no place to hide in the bottle makes them easy to study. Wild field crickets are much more active than domesticated crickets sold in the pet store. Nine crickets is probably more than needed to study crickets. Maybe a couple male and female would be sufficient.
The first picture is my Chinese cricket cage made out of bone. The Chinese value crickets as pets for their luck, song, and fighting and consequently bone cages costing $30 - $1000. Chinese crickets are bigger than Ohio crickets and I can’t use the cage with Ohio crickets, because they would walk through the bars. But in the last picture, now one can have the same good luck with Ohio crickets in a cricket observatory made out of 2-L soda bottle. The 2-L soda bottle cage costs $1 for sand. It is neat to hear them singing from their cage on a window sill.
Chinese Criket Cage versus Soda Pop Bottle Observatory.
How to Make a Cricket Cage
Kids can learn a lot of biology from just catching crickets in their front yard and observing their behavior. This cricket cage allows for keeping crickets on the desktop and is made out of empty 2-L bottles with a bed of white sand for a dollar. The plastic is clearer than a jar. After observing and studying the crickets the cricket can be released and bottle recycled. The glue left from the label on the bottles was removed using a petroleum product and the ink with rubbing alcohol.
DIY Tabletop Biosphere
DIY Tabletop Biosphere - Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration.
What you are seeing in this homemade biosphere is photosynthesis and cellular respiration in action. When sunlight strikes the plants, bubbles of oxygen stream off the leaves into the water giving life sustaining oxygen to the shrimp and snail in this sealed system. Elodea is used in college level experiments to demonstrate this phenomena that can be seen in this biosphere. We have all heard that plants give off oxygen, but seeing is believing. It is light that provide energy for the life in this jar and also our planet. The famous equation that goes with this is… 6H2O + 6CO2 + Light energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2 or water plus carbon dioxide plus light produces cellulose and oxygen
DIY Tabletop Biosphere - Amano Shrimp, Water Wisteria Plant, Snails.
The Amano Shrimp, also known as the Japanese Swamp Shrimp, was chosen for the biosphere because it eats freshwater algae that can be grown inside the biosphere and they live for 2 to 3 years. Amano Shrimp produce waste and tax an aquatic environment just like every other living organism in a tank. So, the small biosphere may support one shrimp for several years. The disadvantage of Amano shrimp is that they cost about $4.00 each and have to be purchased online, minimum five at a time. Pet store do not have them in stock.
This is a picture of pond water poured into an aquarium. It contains bacteria so small that it cannot be seen by eye. If the pond has existed for a long time and has living creatures in it, it contains two kinds of bacteria called Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter needed to converter animal waste to plant fertilizer. This pond water also contains algae, microorganisms, insect larvae, like mosquitos, and snails, a complete food chain for a biosphere. We don’t need mosquitos for our biosphere. If you are lucky enough to have captured ponds snails, they are invaluable to a small biosphere. Small ponds snail are considered an infestation in a home aquariums, because they are so hardy. But, because they are small and hardy, they are ideal for a biosphere. Water with the nitrification bacteria can also be found in healthy aquariums, so don’t throw away the pet store water when purchasing plants, streams and lake. Use aquarium, pond, river, or lake water for you biosphere. Wearing latex gloves and washing hand with antibacterial soup afterwards protects from harmful bacteria.
DIY Tabletop Biosphere - Pond Water Added to Biosphere
DIY Tabletop Biosphere - Pond Water With Nitrification Bacteria
The pond that is filled with nasty bacteria, algae, plants, and parasites holds the key to understanding the biosphere. Because, the pond itself is a biosphere that has no inlet or outlet, and yet it has sustained life for longer than we have been around. This pond has been hidden in the backwoods of Ohio for centuries. The water is steaming with life, bacteria, insects, and reptiles. The highest form of life in this pond is the frog. One way of increasing the chances of a DIY biosphere working, is to use some water from a well-established pond. Humans have learned to filter out and kill bacteria and microbes that would make them sick, and yet that is the food chain needed our biosphere. An 18-year-old Ohio woman died of primary amebic mengioencephalitis from a brain eating amoeba on Sunday June 19th. We have come a long way from living in water and we want to close the doors, however that is where life began and is an interesting place to study the life.
DIY Tabletop Biosphere - Elodea or American Water Weed.
Plants are the most important part of a water microcosm, because all life needs oxygen and plants provide oxygen. Elodea, also called American water weed, is one of the most famous water plants found in aquarium, because the plants is easy to keep, provides good habitat for invertebrate, and is an effective oxygen producer. Elodea is usually the cheapest plant in the aquarium store. Other plants can be used, but the Elodea is easy to cultivate in a microcosm. This plant cost $4.50 at PetSmart. Start the microcosm project by adding the water plant.
Sea Monkeys - 20 Days Old
Sea Monkeys are 20 days old in this video. There are only 3 left from the dozens hatched; two females with egg clusters and one male. My guess is that 3 adults is the capacity of this tiny aquarium. The females are bigger than the male and reddish color. They are now considered adult, fully grown, Sea Monkeys and they will producing either live offspring or eggs called cysts. The females can live up to 3 month.
Releasing The Painted Lady Butterflies.
Releasing the butterflies is a wonderful way to end the butterfly project. While captivity allows the student to closely observe the wonders of metamorphosis, releasing the butterflies just feels good. The butterflies could tell that they were taken outside and began fluttering and looking for ways to escape. It is nice to see them fly away into the environment, and it put closure on the project. At this point, one is glad they only spent $1.50 making the cage that can be tossed into the trashcan. The Painted Lady is native to this country, and they poise no risk in disturbing the ecosystem.
DIY Tabletop Biosphere - obtaining the container.
Decisions, decisions, decisions; which jar would be the best for a student DIY biosphere project? Volume wise from left to right is 2L, 2.5L, and 4L. Cost wise from left to right is $4.99, $3.19, and $8.50. I was euphoric when I found the pickle jar at ALDI’s, because it reminded me when I was a little boy making science projects. From a kid’s point of view, economic barriers are everything in making a project. At 13, my income was from a paper route. The pickle jar is the cheapest and can be justify in the family food budget as the cost of food besides having the advantage of a sealed cap. In comparison, the gallon cookie jar will have to be sealed with silicone at an added cost. I am going to try all three for biospheres and do a comparative study. The gallon jar is more aesthetically pleasant, but will require a larger footprint in a household limited surface space and most expensive.
Make a Tabletop Biosphere - Inspired from Article in Make Magazine
This student project is based on this youtube video and Make magazine Volume 10, p 113- article by John MartinBrown.
The Commercially Available Microcosm - The Ecosphere.
These commercially available microcosm are elegant and well done. However, commercial Ecospheres cost $46, $150, $225, and $400. This price range put it into the hands of well-established young professionals or affluent families who wants a novel decorative piece on their desks, but they are not cost effective for a children’s science class. However, it is a benchmark and standard for DIYers to reach its quality level.
Microcosm i.e. Small World - The DIY Aquatic Microcosm.
Microcosms are artificial, simplified ecosystems that are used to simulate and predict the behavior of natural ecosystems under controlled conditions. Open or closed microcosms provide an experimental area for students to study natural ecological processes. Microcosm studies can teach the ecological roles and interdependence of key species to sustain life. Biosphere 2 was a microcosm made for self-sustained human living in preparation for the day humans will have to develop microcosm in space or other planets to stay alive. (Wikipedia) In this class, students will make their own aquatic microcosms.
The Painted Lady Butterfly, scientific name Vanessa cardui.
The Painted Lady Butterfly, scientific name Vanessa cardui. What an amazing change from a caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Metamorphosis never ceases to amaze me with such dramatic charges in body form. It is mind boggling how this species goes through 5 stages of larvae, then chrysalis, and finally butterfly with such dramatic changes in body form each time. What I like is my response to the insect; while the caterpillar is interesting to me for some instinctive reason I find the design of the insect in the final stages to be beautiful.
Painted Lady Butterflies Hatched 14 Days After Ordering.
The butterflies immerged on day 14! The caterpillars were shipped on 8/11/2016 and arrived at 8/16/2016 taking 6 days to arrive by USPS. The caterpillars arrived full grown and started forming chrysalises on day 8. The butterflies hatched on 8/25/2016, 15 days after ordering. The advantage of this short life cycle is that it fits into the short attention span of young children and they can see the butterflies hatch in about 2 weeks. A clean sponge with sugar water was put into the cage as nectar substitute.
Microcosm
On the left is a picture from November of 2008, when first grade students made a terrarium out of 2-liter bottles. On the right is a picture of that project today, 8/25/2016, almost 8 years later. The terrarium has not been opened in 8 years, yet the plant is alive and well. All it needed for 8 years was sunlight. Yes, the bottle is not as clear now. However, the point is that it was self-sustaining. This is one of the best successes of a microcosm experiment, “micro” meaning small and “cosm” meaning world. The sealed bottle was a small world all of this own. This quarter we are going to try to one up this experiment and make an aquatic microcosm with both plants and animals.