The kindergartners visited the space table with the caterpillar rearing boxes as soon as they arrived to school. Kindergarten was warm and cozy today at 8:00 am with temperatures two degrees higher than average temperatures last week. During our morning meeting, I shared with the kindergartners my observations of the splotchy, discoloration on the caterpillars on Saturday and the ideas I had for caring for caterpillars that seem to be growing more slowly than earthling caterpillars should be growing.
We added a bright light to the table where the rearing boxes are kept. It is much brighter than our overhead lights and will help the caterpillars know for sure that it is day time, even when we turn off the overhead lights when we leave the classroom to go to the library.
We observed the splotchy, discolored caterpillars in their own box, eating leaves intsead of the milkweed "pesto." "Sometimes," I explained, "caterpillars can get sick from germs that are too small for our eyes to see. If they are sick, putting them in a box of their own, away from the other caterpillars, may keep the others healthier."
Children noticed the leaves in the box and together figured out that they were milkweed leaves from the schoolyard gardens. Since we don't have enough milkweed "pesto" (space food) for these two caterpillars, we agreed to continue feeding them milkweed leaves as long as they wanted to eat. Even if they were sick, we agreed, we need to continue taking care of them and keep them warm and well-fed.
In the other boxes, still in Monarchs In Space Plan B set-up, children think that the caterpillars are in fact getting bigger. "A caterpillar frasses when it is eating and growing," Lucy explained. Many children observed the larger pieces of frass as well as a difference in the color of the frass; some was darker green, some was lighter green. It is a little bit easier to understand what is happening when leaves are actually disappearing from the rearing box. Kindergartners are in agreement that the "sick"caterpillars eating the milkweed leaves are growing. "There is only one small part of a leaf left in the box, " observed Noah, "the other ones have been eaten."
Sunday: I've decided to remove the two discolored caterpillars from the rearing boxes and to give them a box of their own with milkweed leaves. At 3:00 pm. I fed them four milkweed leaves that I cleaned with 10% bleach solution. They are in a rearing box set-up that I have used successfully for many years. I placed the leaves gently on top of the caterpillars. Immediately they became active. One began eating within the first minute, the second began eating within the first 5 minutes. At the present time they are resting.
I am now thinking that before we introduce milkweed to the other containers, perhaps we should adjust the temperature. During the day, we've been able to keep the temperature at 70 degrees in the classroom. At night, it has most likely been 68 degrees. If we brought the temperature up to the mid-seventies, perhaps we will observe some change in the caterpillars' level of activity and interest in the food. Changing the temperature is something we can do without altering the Plan B set-up.
Friday: Kindergarten continued to observe the caterpillars today and worked through a project-related math game in which each child marked a path for the space shuttle to fly to the ISS. The game was played on a graph and pathways were created by marking boxes corresponding to consecutive rolls of a die. New information was posted on the project information board about the STS-129 mission. Temperatures remain steady throughout the day at 70 degrees F and 20 degrees C in the classroom.
Saturday afternoon: In two rearing boxes, I observed two caterpillars unusually dark and splotchy; others in the same boxes are still brightly colored and stripes are visible. In the same two boxes, caterpillars are slightly smaller and thinner and there is little frass on the bottom. In two other rearing boxes, caterpillars are brightly colored and their stripes are visible. They are slightly larger and a bit more active than the others. There is more frass in the bottom of these two containers but truthfully, not what I've been expecting.
I am concerned by the observations made today. Something doesn't seem right. I have seen caterpillars become discolored like this a few times during the summer when I've hand-raised caterpillars collected from the wild. I've seen the same thing happen a few times with caterpillars I've ordered from Monarch Watch. Caterpillars that I've seen with this same kind of splotchy discoloration have died prior to the chrysalis stage.
Indeed, I am concerned by the discoloration of two of the caterpillars. I am even more concerned about the slow growth of the caterpillars as evidenced by skinny caterpillar bodies and frass that doesn't seem much bigger than it was on Day 2.
I am wondering if there is a problem with food, light, temperature, or humidity and wonder if in some way we've gone astray in meeting the needs of these gentle, fragile creatures even though we are doing our best to follow the Monarchs In Space Plan B guide.
I wonder what information I can find on the Monarchs In Space forum that would help me sort out my concerns at this time and help me figure out what to do next. I feel a bit helpless.
If the problem is somehow food related, one ray of hope remains: we've had an unusually warm fall here in southeastern Pennsylvania and several stalks of milkweed still sport fairly fresh green leaves. If needed we could introduce fresh milkweed to the caterpillars.
I'll think it over tonight.
Today we completed another caterpillar observation on the Day 4 page of our journals. We made our observations as young scientists, trying our best to draw what we saw inside the rearing boxes. Teacher: What do you see today? What do you observe the caterpillars doing? What can you draw that will help you remember what it looks like right now? As they worked, kindergartners talked about their observations with their peers and teachers.
We talked about the astronaut's first space walk today. We thought about how astronauts would be suited and tethered for their first spacewalk today. The caterpillars, however, would not be suited for a spacewalk out of the ISS as they are safely confined to their boxes. How does a caterpillar move around? On earth? In space? This is one of the questions the astronauts could try and answer in space while we understand it better on earth. We found out that caterpillars on earth "tether" themselves to whatever they are crawling across with a thread of silk produced near their "chins." Then, they crawl across it and attach to it with little hooks in their "feet." When the caterpillars walk across the plastic wrap window, we can easily see the "suction cup" feet and the 6 legs near the head of our caterpillars. In two of our containers we can see some silk the caterpillars are making on the sides.
We looked at photos from space posted on the website to see what the caterpillars are doing in space. We noticed that the caterpillars are "hanging on" and moving up and down across and through the food containers, just like they are doing in our classroom! We were surprised they weren't floating. We think they are tethered like the astronauts are during a spacewalk. As we clicked through the photos, the children shared their observations: "Look! One is the color of a rainbow! How did that happen? Why aren't ours like that?" "Two are sleeping." "One is moving around a lot."
It was a very busy day on earth-and in space! We watched NASA TV for a short time to understand how the shuttle was going to dock with the space station. We tuned in briefly later in the afternoon to see the astronauts on board the International Space Station. We were able to see Nicole at work at her computer and two other astronauts "floating" by!
During storytime today, we used childrens' reference books with eye-catching illustrations and interesting text to understand a little bit more about the ISS. In doing so, we read a little bit about suiting for a spacewalk, working in space, and came across information about using tethers, handholds, and footholds in space so things and people don't float away, including astronauts when they are spacewalking. A few photos led us to consider the differences in how astronauts sleep and eat while in space.
After learning that astronaut food is often prepared with dry ingredients, mixed with water, and slurped with a straw, we endeavored to make a snack that we could slurp through a straw. Thus, the Strawberry-Banana smoothie cooking project unfolded. Kindergartners prepared their own smoothies at the KinderCooks table, slicing chunks of banana and strawberries that were mixed with 6 oz of milk and blended into a flavored froth with a blender and a very patient parent helper! We had a lot of fun slurping our smoothies, astronaut-style.
We will be learning more about the space shuttle and its crew of astronauts with daily updates from the Monarchs In Space website. Today we found out that the space shuttle is named Atlantis. The STS-129 Mission has an official logo; the astronauts of the STS-129 Mission wear the patch on their suits. We have a patch in the classroom to look at. The space shuttle is an orbiter. It is traveling around the earth, out in space. It is flying to the International Space Station called the ISS. and carrying equipment, tools, and parts for the space station in addition to experiments. One of their experiments is the caterpillar experiment that we know as Monarchs In Space.
The crew has a commander, a pilot, and mission specialists. They are all astronauts. They will fly the shuttle to the ISS to meet another astronaut who has been living on the ISS for two months. They will bring her home when they return to earth. On Wednesday, the space shuttle will meet the ISS and "dock" so the astronauts can board the space station. We have reference books, photos, and kindergartners' drawings in our classroom hanging above our "All About Space" table.
In addition, we have posted a calendar to count the days the caterpillars are in space, we have a posted a thermometer to measure the room temperature near the rearing boxes, we have pictures of the astronauts (the space-bound crew) and a class photo of kindergarten (the earth-bound crew) hanging by the table. Every morning a brief update about the upcoming day is posted.
Today in our journals, we explored how to put shapes together to represent our ideas of spaceships, real and imaginary.
Plans are forming for the construction of a space shuttle and space station. Preliminary work was completed last week as teachers packed up the "Playhouse" props and created an island of space construction materials in the back of the room.
