Cicada lessons at Belvedere featured on TV news

Belvedere students examine a cicada. [Photos: FCPS]

By the time the cicadas from Brood X started emerging earlier this month, students at Belvedere Elementary School in Annandale were ready and eager to study them up close. 

Two environmental educators, a librarian, and a resource teacher have been educating students about the 17-year cicadas for weeks, according to a news release from Fairfax County Public Schools. 

When the students finally got to examine the insects through a magnifying glass and carry out activities with them, reporters from WTOP/Channel 9 News and WJLA/Channel 7 News were there to capture their excitement. 

Related story: Local photographer turns cicadas into media stars

“We started by learning about cicadas in the classroom,” says environmental educator Andrea Auerbach. “At the same time, our librarian began working on cicada-themed stories, and we have multiple other activities both inside and outdoors to pique the students’ interests. There has been a lot of excitement and the children have been very engaged. Their enthusiasm has been wonderful to see.”

Students excitedly spot cicadas on a tree

During a trip to the outdoor classroom in the school’s courtyard last week, shrieks of excitement – and horror – rang out as a group of third-graders peered at the insects through magnifying glasses.

It wasn’t long before they found what they were looking for.

“Exoskeletons!” yelled Eliam Adane as he discovered the abandoned shells littering the ground. “Ewww…. I found one over here, too,” said Maxwell Findler.

As the others ran over to inspect, Auerbach arrived with a giant orange cicada shell collection bucket marked “How many can we find?”

“I’m finding them all over the place,” said Emma Lyttle. “Me and my brother found eight this morning. It was like they were having a cicada party!”

A close encounter with a cicada.

Some students were brave enough to touch them, and one student let a cicada crawl on his arm. The students named that one Grippy.

Other cicada-related activities at Belvedere included a contest to find a rare blue or white-eyed species and cicada bingo with children marking off activities on a grid that included “saw a cicada nymph,” “saw a cicada flying,” and even “ate a cooked cicada.”

Students learned about the cicada life cycle and practiced drawing the insects. Rogers designed a “wanted” poster to encourage students to hunt for a cicada with blue or white eyes. 

Related story: 17 things to know about the 17-year cicada invasion

Auerbach still has vivid, unpleasant memories from the last emergence of Brood X in 2004.

“I was incredibly freaked out by the cicadas,” she recalls. “I remember them being everywhere, sweeping them off the sidewalk, and having them fly into me. I vowed that next time around I would be taking an extended vacation.”

“But now, as an environmental educator,” she says, “I wasn’t about to leave.”