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Learning rules of migration with a delicate monarch

Barrie School students help trace the flight of butterflies as they travel south

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo courtesy of Vicky Slavin Students at The Barrie Schooltagged monarch butterflies, like this one, to track the migration of the insects. When someone finds them at the end of the migration, they are asked to log on to a Web site and enter the number from the tag. Click here to enlarge this photo Brian Lewis⁄The Gazette At The Barrie School in Silver Spring, student Emma Donoghue and teacher Cathy Carpenter handle plants for their butterfly garden during a Thursday afternoon taping of a show for the Animal Planet cable channel.

Howard’s mixed class of fourth- and fifth-graders at The Barrie School in Silver Spring was chosen as part of a series, ‘‘Spring Watch USA,” on wildlife conservation and students and teachers who are working toward saving various species. Their focus is on the monarch butterfly.

‘‘I was really excited when I heard [about the show],” Howard said. ‘‘My favorite part is seeing our first butterfly emerge from the caterpillars ... and letting it go.”

Monarch butterflies, whose populations are depleting, have become a focus of many science classrooms and scientists worldwide. Judy Yormick, one of the Barrie’s science teachers, said that it is important for students to learn how hard such a small species has to fight to survive and to gain empathy for all creatures.

The monarchs have declined because of the lack of milkweed and nectar due to over-development in warmer areas. The University of Kansas has a program, Monarch Watch, of which many schools nationwide have become a part, including Barrie.

Monarch Watch has helped Barrie by selling the class larvae and milkweed used to breed and nurture the monarch butterflies, which are then released to start their migration south.

A production team from Painless Productions, contracted by Animal Planet, was at Barrie on Thursday with a cameraman, a sound technician and a producer. The team taped the students and teachers while they were in the classroom, on a field trip to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton and releasing of the tagged butterflies. For the four-minute segment, the team took nearly eight hours of film.

The Barrie School is one of six that will be highlighted during the series and the school’s contribution is scheduled to air during the first episode in April 2007.

Besides the footage at the school, the rest of the episode will focus on the migration of the butterflies and efforts made to save them. Animal Planet also will have a team in Mexico for the butterflies’ arrival.

This is the second year the school has worked with monarch butterflies. While nurturing the butterflies, the class of about 20 students learned about the lifecycle and what it takes to protect wildlife.

‘‘We really try to build a respect in nature and see the big picture,” Yormick said. ‘‘To just read about it wouldn’t be the same.”

Tim Trautman, the head of school, said this sort of activity complements the mission of the school: ‘‘student-centered, teacher-guided.”

‘‘It’s a wonderful opportunity for the kids, very exciting and offers a sense of importance and uniqueness to it all,” he said.

Part of the uniqueness of the class project is that students actually track the butterflies to see if they reach Mexico. The monarch butterflies, which cannot survive cold winters, migrate to Mexico, often to the same tree, according to Monarchwatch.org. The butterflies are tagged using small circular stickers with identification numbers, which are then recorded once they are found in Mexico. Students and teachers will be able to track them using the Monarch Watch Web site.

Last year, students were unable to find any of the butterflies they released but are hopeful this year.

Through its efforts, Barrie also has become an official waystation for the butterflies. A waystation is a stop on the path of the butterflies’ migration and also gives the butterflies that stay in the area during the summer a place to eat and rest. Monarch Watch has designated about 900 waystations across the country.

‘‘We put in the waystation in early July, and I can tell you that the day that it was put in we had huge amounts of butterflies just immediately follow,” said Cathy Carpenter, the other teacher in the classroom.

Overall effects and links between people and nature are also important aspects of the experiment. The students learn about the way the indigenous people in Mexico have destroyed many of the trees necessary for the existence of the monarchs.

‘‘People in Mexico are cutting down trees,” Howard said. ‘‘We have to help the monarchs not become extinct.”

Some in Mexico use the trees as their main form of commercial revenue, so there is a movement by Monarch Watch to help these people find other ways to make a living that would not destroy the butterflies’ habitat.

Not only were the children educated on these topics and the cycle of the butterflies, but also understood the importance of having the camera there to document it.

‘‘It’s a great way to show people The Barrie School and what we do,” said Luke Murray, 10, of Silver Spring. ‘‘And we get to teach other kids about monarchs.”