Grasshopper Long Jump

Background:

A grasshopper can jump 30 inches. If you could jump that many times your body length, you could cover an entire football field in a single bound.

Materials:

- Grasshoppers or crickets

- Tape measure

Methods:

Grasshopper long jump -

a. How far can a grasshopper jump?

b. Select a grasshopper, place chosen grasshopper on starting line that is marked on the table. Grasshopper should be cupped in hands.

c. Open hands and allow grasshopper to jump. Mark the first landing site.

d. Measure and record distance jumped. Compare distance jumped with the length of the grasshopper’s body.

e. How many times its body length did the grasshopper jump?

f. Remember to replicate

Standing long jump

a. Have students stand along a line and jump as far as they can. Measure how far they jumped in inches.

b. The flea can jump 200 times its body length. Measure the children’s height and determine how many of their body length they jumped.

c. How far would 200 of their body lengths be?

d. Who jumped further compared to body height, the children or the flea?

Conclusions:

- Ask students to speculate why insects can jump several times their own body weight and humans can not?

- Compare male vs female grasshoppers

- Compare grasshoppers vs crickets