Eleven living butterflies have returned from winter break at my home and have re-adjusted to life in the kindergarten classroom. The body of our 12th butterfly is pressed under glass next to the STS-129 Atlantis mission patch. Today, our Monarchs are 25 days old as adult butterflies (most eclosed on December 10).
I am am very surprised at their longevity in captivity; it is a wonder to me (never having raised butterflies over the winter on artificial diet) that they are still living.
Classroom temperatures during the day are warmer than the temperatures at my home but during the night, possibly cooler. Butterflies will be encouraged to feed during the warmer, daylight hours. Natural light and artificial light is about the same.
When the butterflies' Gatorade is freshened (every other day) the butterflies chosen at random and placed by hand on the sponges, do not stay very long to feed when they are on the hanging platform. Butterflies chosen at random and hand-placed on the feeding tray at the bottom of the terrarium seem to stay longer to feed.
Overall, I believe I've seen greater interest (on the part of the butterflies) in the Gatorade-soaked pompoms set-up in which each pompom was placed in a plastic water bottle lid and then lined up in a take-out sushi tray. We hand-placed the butterflies on the pompoms in the same manner as we are doing in the current set-up with the sponges and feeding platforms and observed butterflies active and feeding for longer periods of time.
The students really enjoyed soaking each pompom with an eye dropper and setting up the feeding trays independently. We all learned how to hand-place the butterflies onto the pompoms, a task 5 year-olds can fulfill with utmost care. We think the pompoms are very colorful and that the butterflies may be attracted to them like they are to flowers.
While differences in observations between feeding observed on the sponges and the pompoms could be due to other factors (such as biology, temperature, time of day, etc.), I plan to buy more pompoms so we can set-up Gatorade-soaked pompoms on both the tray on the floor of the terrarium as well as on the hanging platform.
A journey of 584 million miles around the sun has begun anew. No wings or booster rockets needed for this journey. Consider gravity, in its infinite wisdom, and planet earth, hanging on to us for dear life.
When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. (Buddha)
For more on gravity and the Monarchs In Space project, please read the scientists' concluding essay about the caterpillars who journeyed into space (experimental) and their earth-bound counterparts (control) posted at: http://www.monarchwatch.org/space/what-was-learned.html
Happy New Year 2010! Mmmm...fresh Gatorade sponges today!
I visited the Monarchs In Space website today and was inspired to make some changes in the terrarium. Though we have not encountered any problems with the current set-up, I was curious about the recommendations posted to the website.
Instead of boiling water on the stove to humidify the air in the kitchen, I purchased a spray bottle so I can mist the top of the terrarium every day.
I knew the pompoms in the feeding trays needed to be replaced very soon due to the fact that they were slowly disintegrating. Instead of pmpoms, we will use 4 sponges. The sponges will soak up the Gatorade as the pompoms did in the original feeding trays.
To make the new feeding platforms, I followed the directions on the website and suspended a feeding tray from the top of the terrarium, putting the Gatorade-soaked sponges in the feeding trays.
With the trays suspended at a height the butterflies can find it on their own, I will not need to place them one by one on to the sponges every day as I had been doing with the pompoms at the bottom of the terrarium.
I will make some observations of this new feeding arrangement and post the news tomorrow!
To: Kindergarten
From: Teacher Ann
Dear Kindergartners,
Will you help me figure out how many days have passed since our butterflies came out of their chrysalides? We could count the days and know how "old" they are in their butterfly stage.
First, find a calendar and turn the pages through eleven months, beginning in January. When you come to the twelfth month, stop. What month is it?
December is the twelfth month in our calendar year. Today is December 29. Find the 29th on the calendar and circle it with a pencil or marker.
Now, let's look on the calendar for December 10, the day our first butterflies eclosed (came out) of their chrysalides. When you find December 10, circle it with a pencil or marker.
Here is the question: If the butterflies came out on December 10 and today is December 29, how many days "old" are they in their butterfly stage?
Use the calendar to help you! Count the days between December 10 and December 29. What number did you get? That's how old the butterflies are today in their butterfly stage!
Love,
Teacher Ann
Today when the sun was streaming in the windows I went on a search for the missing butterfly that escaped the terrarium at feeding time on December 23rd. Although I searched high and low for it at the time, I could not locate it. Each day I looked for it in the den, being careful where I stepped and how I moved things on the shelves. Finally, on the 27th, I couldn't bear it anymore and got out a flashlight, intending to search in every nook and cranny of every shelf and piece of furniture.
Eventually, I found the butterfly between my desk and the wall where I keep large artist sketch books propped at an angle. The butterfly was resting, wings folded over it's body between two books. As I gently pulled one of the sketchbooks forward, I saw the butterfly move! As I moved it into the sunlight, it opened its wings and extended its tongue. Gently, I returned the butterfly to the terrarium where it could feed on the Gatorade.
It had been "lost" for 4 days!
