This fall the 2nd annual "Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration" will be launched in collaboration with Mexico City's Museo del Nino. We will be joining other students from across the United States and Canada to create thousands of paper butterflies that will "migrate" to Mexico for the winter. Last year over 40,000 students participated.This years flight will be timed to correspond with the real monarch's journey south. The paper butterflies will arrive in Mexico around the time of the Dia de los Muertos, just as the real monarchs do. According to Mexican legenc, these returning butterflies are thought to carry the ancestors' souls and play a role in the Dia de los Muertos celebrations. Sometime next March, when the real monarchs' depart from Mexico the paper butterflies will return to North America. Each butterfly will carry a special message from the Mexican students to the students here in the United States and Canada who make them.
How To Make A Monarch
For the Fall Migration
From Fort Washington
To Mexico |
|
Designing Your Own Monarch
Design your own monarch or visit the Journey North WWW and see the many examples created by other students. Using only paper, how can you can convey the fragile nature of a butterfly? At the same time, how can you make sure your monarch survives its journey south, the winter months in Mexico and its journey north next spring? Your butterfly symbolizes a real monarch butterfly. As visitors to Mexico who return year after year, monarchs depend on the Mexican people for survival. How can your butterfly serve as an ambassador of goodwill? How can it represent you and express your appreciation
For Successful Migration
Our Butterflies
_____Must be no larger than 8 1/2 x 11
_____Must be made entirely from paper (Please use recycled paper!)
_____Must be flat, not 3 dimensional
_____Have no 3D decorations
_____Must have the name & full address of sender, clearly typed
_____Must have messages to Mexican students, clearly typed
Information about Monarchs
The monarchs you see today are the same butterflies we will track carefully next spring, asthey return from Mexico. The vivid colors of their fresh wings will be faded after the longmigration and winter months.
This monarch generation is very long-lived compared to the monarch generations of summer. During the summer, monarchs live for only a few weeks. They quickly produce the next generation and die. In contrast, monarchs of late summer do not enter the breeding condition. The shorter days and cool temperatures trigger a hormonal change, and the monarchs go into a state known as "sexual diapause". Monarchs of this generation will live some 8-9 months--and undertake a spectacular migration to Mexico in between.
In the spring, today's butterflies will become sexually mature. They will mate and return to the southern part of their breeding range. It is their children who will repopulate the north--and begin the cycle of summer generations again.
Next week,we'll visit Cape May, New Jersey where the Monarch Migration Project is now underway. For the 6th year in a row, people there are monitoring the migration by systematically counting monarchs 3 times a day. Each year the migration has reached a peak in themiddle of September at Cape May. In fact, September 19th has been the record day for several years in a row. According to Dick Walton, Program Director, the monarchs tend to move when cold fronts arrive.
Try This! Watch the weather in New Jersey closely this week! Check out the links below to some of the best spots for weather-watching. Also, see if you can answer our first Challenge Question of the season.
Challenge Question #1
"Why do you think Cape May is such a good place to watch for migrating monarchs?
How to Respond to Journey North Monarch Challenge Question # 1
Please include the name of your school and your location so we can credit you
properly for your answers.
Designed and created by Dr. Susanne C. Johnston, science department of Germantown Academy. Suggestions or comments may be sent to sjohn@ga.k12.pa.us.
Technical support provided by Carol Siwinski, Curricular Technology Advisor at csiwi@ga.k12.pa.us
