Commentaries

Jiminy Cricket! How Counting Chirps Can Reveal the Temp

By John Richard Schrock

Published March 10, 2016 at 6:30 AM CST

Striped Ground Cricket (Photo by songsofinsects.com/crickets)

If you live in eastern Kansas, you've probably been enjoying the warmer-than-normal weather. Just like us, insects are also affected by the weather. In fact, as Commentator John Richard Schrock tells us, some insects can actually tell you the temperature... until they can't.

Commentator John "Richard" Schrock is the director of biology education at Emporia State University, where he teaches and trains students to become biology teachers. He's also a regular contributor to Kansas Public Radio.

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Production assistance for this commentary comes from KPR News Intern Austin Fitts.

Commentaries

John Richard Schrock

Schrock attended Indiana State University in Terre Haute, where tuition was $8 a semester hour in 1964, completing a bachelor's degree in biology teaching and a master's in science education. He began teaching in Kentucky before he graduated from I.S.U., and completed his degrees during summers. Schrock taught five years in Alexandria, Kentucky middle and high schools and two years at the I.S.U. Laboratory School before going overseas to teach at Hong Kong International School for three years. Schrock completed his Ph.D. in entomology working on insect ecology and systematics at the University of Kansas and, upon graduation, worked for the Association of Systematics Collections for three years. When the A.S.C. moved to Washington, DC, Schrock took the position at Emporia State University, directing biology teacher training. He was on the state biology committee and closely involved in the Kansas evolution debates of 1999. He writes a weekly Kansas newspaper column on education, produces public radio commentaries, and appears monthly on Kansas television.

See stories by John Richard Schrock