Soothing Sounds of Electronic Chirping

Forget the rocking chair, wrap around porch and sun setting beyond the farthest fields, now all you need to do to enjoy the sound of crickets chirping is a light switch.

At the Monmouth County Library Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury Saturday, children and teens from all over the county learned how to make crickets: electronic devices that are activated and chirp once the lights go out.

The free class was taught by Dave Peins of Robodyssey Systems, a education company that develops and provides instruction in science to children and young adults through the use of robotics.

“I’ve never done this kind of thing,” 15-year-old Paul Alangadan said. “It makes the noise of a cricket when the lights go out, and when they come on, it’s quiet.”

The all-day class provided students with the chance to make their own cricket by following schematics and instruction.

“Parents often come and say ‘You got my kid to sit down and work on this for six hours?’” Peins, an adjunct at Raritan Community College, said. “Robots are a really cool context for learning electronics, physics, and science.

“We want to teach kids how to read schematics and be able to build from them.”

The robotics education continues next week at the Eastern Branch with another all day class, this one Intro to Robotics. The class is free, but students must preregister. To check out Robodyssey, click the link. To find out more about the .