There are many different integrated circuit counters.  One popular chip is the 74193 Up/Down counter.I  Here is the pinout for the chip.  Note that this is a logic chip and that power is supplied to the corners.

Note the following for this chip:

• Power is supplied to the corners.
• The four bits in the count are A, B, C and D.  A is the LSB and D is the MSB.
• There are two count-controlling input pins, 4 and 5.
• To count up, hold the down pin (#4) high (5v), and put the pulse into pin 5.
• To count down, hold the up pin (#5) high (5v), and put the pulse into pin 4.
• Pin 14 is a clear input.  Make this pin a zero (0v) to avoid constantly clearing the counter!
• Pin 11 is a load input.  This pin is "active low".  Make this pin a zero (5v) to avoid inadvertantly loading a random count into the counter!

• He wants you to design a logic circuit to make things simpler.  Here is what he wants the box to do:
• There should be an UP input.  When UP is 1, the counter counts up.  When UP is 0, the counter counts down.
• There should be a pulse input to be counted.
• When the input frequency is low, he wants to be able to see some blinky lights that will show the binary count.