Gus Lott (right) created software the students are using to analyze the insect sounds.

Both groups faced some real-world obstacles. For one thing, urban Singapore does not have big cricket populations, so Beh and Teo regularly traveled a mile-long causeway to cross the border to Malaysia and its cricket-rich fields. Because they could not carry live insects across the border, the boys, crouched side by side in the tall grass that crickets favor, made their recordings on site.

Back in Virginia, Bowers and Jamil had their own problems. One batch of crickets died in an unsanitary aquarium. As winter approached and temperatures dropped, so did the young researchers' hopes when crickets outside started dying off. Then, Jamil's mother took time during a family gathering in Pennsylvania to collect crickets from a field near her relatives' home. And Bowers reports that “my mom and I went to the National Arboretum, which was like the Garden of Eden: crickets everywhere!” The aquarium was then thoroughly cleaned, and “most of them lived long enough for us to record them,” says Bowers, adding that, “One escaped during recording. I still haven't found him….”

Next, the vast differences in scientific approach between the young scientists' countries had to be reconciled when Beh and Teo visited AOS, where the style tends to be “hands-on,” fostering an appreciation of scientific inquiry for the sake of discovery. Tradition (and financial realities) in Singapore means that all science projects there, even in high school, must aim for practical applications; embracing a less rigid approach was an adjustment for the visitors.

“They both have pros and cons,” Teo says of the schools' differing methods. “I'd prefer a combination of their relaxed environment and our task-oriented approach.”

Between experimenting and drafting reports, the hosting and visiting students ate, toured, and lived together. Each boy from HCI, an all-male institution, stayed with an American family.

What did the Singaporean students find most surprising about America? For one thing, they got to sleep in. At HCI, students often are expected to be at school before sunrise. With time to kill every morning, Beh and Teo usually could be seen in the mist-covered fields alongside Dominion High School collecting the season's last crickets.

Photo: James Kegley

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