This morning I had an "AHA!" moment when I realized that along with observing what is happening (or not) with schools and technologies I could also use my blog to share what excites me.There are really so many exciting things that can be done in the classroom with technology to enhance learning of the curriculum.
One thing is to follow the migration of the Monarch Butterfly north from Mexico to Canada in the spring or south from Canada to Mexico in the fall. It is an amazing mystery how these butterflies know where to go every year. During the course of one migration it is possible to have several generations of butterflies hatch eggs and die. How do they know where to go?
There are so many applications of this project to the curriculum. Social Studies-geography, Science-life cycle, ecology, Arts-visual art, Language Arts-just about anything with writing or reading could be included (write letters to the Mexican Government urging them to protect the monarch's environment), Technology-there are several websites that follow the migration and have projects you can join. Journey North http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ is my favorite (it also has many other natural phenomena you can follow and Monarch Watch http://www.monarchwatch.org/ which includes curriculum. You can even plant a Monarch Garden at your school (Did you know that they only eat milkweed which is being killed off by herbacide resistant strains of corn and soybeans?). At the Monarch Watch site they sell milkweed seeds! This morning an article in the New York times Science section talked about the Monarch Watch project and said to email askscience@nytimes.com if you have any other questions.
Picture Credit: Pedroni, Leilani. Monarch Butterflies Emerged from Cocoon. monarchhatched2.jpeg. 2004. My eCoach® eLibrary. Online. Available. 3 October 2006.
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