Butterflies And Phenology

My Students: With your help my students may be joining the rest of the world by participating in the USA National Phenology Network. This organization uses information from all over the Un...

My Project: Our data is incomplete and we have only identified 5 species with certainty. The new field guides, recommended by experts in the local Fish and Wildlife Service branch, will a... more»

My Students: With your help my students may be joining the rest of the world by participating in the USA National Phenology Network. This organization uses information from all over the United States to study the changes in organisms due to climate changes (Phenology).

My students began studying butterflies on campus last year and loved it. Now we have the opportunity to participate in a project with other scientists, students and citizens from all over the country in collecting and entering data about what is happening in our local community in a National Data Base.

Last year we began a field study of butterflies on campus. The students would go out in groups of three to search the campus for these beautiful animals. We have been using a super cheap discontinued butterfly field guides that are missing many of the local species. They try to take photographs and attempt to identify them later in the classroom on a computer. Many species have eluded the students since they cannot id the species in the field and there is no picture to reference on the computer in the classroom.

My Project: Our data is incomplete and we have only identified 5 species with certainty. The new field guides, recommended by experts in the local Fish and Wildlife Service branch, will allow our students to use a professional resource and generate even more excitement and interest with their success of identifying species accurately in the field.

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service the United States is behind most other countries on this project, so my students would be on the forefront of providing the nation with information.

My classes are also working with the National Park Service growing plants for re-establishing native habitat on campus to attract more butterflies.

This would give the students a unique and meaningful scientific field experience thanks to your support. These unique learning projects have been available to my students thanks to the donations and support of people like you who know that the education of children must include hands-on opportunities to learn. hide»