Best Teaching Tools: CICADAS!
Want to connect youth to nature through incredibly unique activities?
This guidebook is designed for parents, educators and youth event coordinators.
The most fun activities you can do with cicadas and other live insects!
It’s also packed with Cicada jokes!
What do you call a cicada that is missing 3 legs on one side? Eileen (I lean)
Order your ebook or print copy here.
Questions? email us: cindy@drcindysmith.com
rgroover33@gmail.com
What’s the Big Deal?
Seventeen years ago Cindy Smith hosted an incredible event for the whole second grade at Nokesville Elementary School. The kids not only got up close, personal and comfortable with periodical cicadas, they also honed their engineering and critical thinking skills. They learned about the crazy 17-year life history, engaged in multiple activities with their cicada sidekicks, and experienced a LOT of laughing.
Now you and your kids can set up a similar, unforgettable event at your school, neighborhood, park or backyard.
What’s in the book?
A bit of background on the cicadas, science, math, and engineering activities, directions on how to set up a Cicada Olympics event, and of course, funny cicada jokes. Everything you need to design and run an incredible event (even if you dislike bugs) is outlined. Oodles of ways to engage your kids in cool science and math activities at home are included.
IMAGE GALLERY
Cicadas can and do enjoy driving Tonka trucks ©CindySmith,PhD
Adorable, red-eyed wonder
Butters the Cat likes to taste cicadas ©CindySmith,PhD
Leisurely paddling the shell boat ©CindySmith,PhD
When your shell boat sinks and your friends wave and tell you to swim bat to shore ©CindySmith,PhD
Toad is having a very bad day based on an earlier poor decision made out of fear ©CindySmith,PhD
Learning how to sail a small wooden boat. ©CindySmith,PhD
A cicada is driving this train! The excitement is whether the cicada stays focussed as a driver, or chooses to jump out causing an auto incident ©CindySmith,PhD
Moby the Cat is terrified of cicadas. After one smell he scampered away and hid ©CindySmith,PhD
Sailing larger boats can be more challenging, but cicadas and their first mates (provided they do not fly away) manage to glide effortlessly through the Chesapeake Bay
Integrating toys with live insects helps kids play out stories and emotions. Charlie, age 5 said, (speaking as as T-rex) "My mom is scared of big bugs! So don't come in our house!"
Nymph emergence holes. If you look closely, you can see them watching you before they emerge. ©CindySmith,PhD
Nymph emerging from tunnel ©Gene Kritsky, PhD
Nymph climbed my thumb. Cicadas are excellent teaching tools because they are gentle, do not bite and stare adoringly at you. ©CindySmith,PhD
Nymphs crawling up tree ©Gene Kritsky, PhD awesome cicada researcher
Did this nymph just crawl up my leg? YES! and it's kinda weird, but cool to see how driven they are to get to the party in the treetops ©CindySmith,PhD
Nymph molting on yellowwood tree ©Gene Kritsky, PhD who developed the Cicada Safari app https://cicadasafari.org/
Newly molted, wings filling up with fluid. A very good time for humans to eat cicadas and not get wings stuck in your teeth ©CindySmith, PhD
Fluid-filled wings getting longer. As the exoskeleton dries, they will become crunchier to those who eat them @CindySmith,PhD
Wings are filling more. I wonder if it hurts when the white breathing tubes tear during molting. ©CindySmith,PhD
Cicadas on tree ©Gene Kritsky, PhD developer of the Cicada Safari app https://cicadasafari.org/
Adults mating ©Gene Kritsky, PhD developer of the Cicada Safari app https://cicadasafari.org/
Male left, female right. She has an ovipositor for slitting branches, laying eggs ©GeneKritsky,PhD
Female laying eggs. The black, sword-like ovipositor cuts slits in branches. Tiny nymphs hatch weeks later and free fall to the ground, dig down into the soil and find a root to suck on. ©CindySmith,PhD
Tiny young cicada nymph ©Gene Kritsky, PhD
Exoskeletons are so easy to collect. With just a bit of glue you can build exoskeleton pyramids, robots, llamas..possibilities are endless ©CindySmith,PhD
Check out that nymph ogling the newly molted adult. Does she think he's hot? Will she look for him in the treetops? ©CindySmith,PhD
Exoskeletons littering the ground ©Gene Kritsky, PhD Cicadas are nitrogen sources
Flagging tree branches, female cicadas cut off water flow when she slit the branch and deposited eggs ©Gene Kritsky, PhD
Adult cicada climbs prickly stem. Do these thorns poke them? Is the exoskeleton hard enough that they feel no pain? Inquiring minds want to know ©CindySmith,PhD
Curled wings means no flying for this adult. But, if he can climb to the treetop and sing, he may still meet the wing-flicking women of his dreams ©CindySmith,PhD
Cicada loves my gigantic diamond ring almost as much as a sexy Magicicada song ©CindySmith,PhD
Video Gallery- coming soon
See videos of Cicadas emerging and crawling up the author’s legs. Is this gross and creeping? No! It’s the best way to experience authentic learning. These nymphs are on a mission to molt and get to the wild party in the treetops.