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Transcript
Butterfly Discoveries Group Backpack Program ACTIVITIES OUTLINE: 1. What Is A Butterfly? • Location: Any gazebo or sitting area. • Activity: Students learn about butterfly anatomy. • Teaching aids: wings, antennae, thorax, abdomen, compound eye lens, proboscis. 2. The Butterfly Habitat • Location: outdoors - Butterfly Wall Garden adjacent to North Conservatory. • Activity: Teacher and students discuss the concept of a habitat; butterfly garden plants, and what butterflies need in order to survive. • Teaching aids: student worksheet. 3. A Butterfly’s Life • Location: any gazebo or sitting area. • Activity: Students use their imagination and senses in an outdoor setting while listening and discussing a story. • Teaching aids: Where Butterflies Grow, Joanne Ryder. 4. Butterfly Behaviors and Identification • Locations: Fragrance Garden, Perennial Garden, Butterfly Wall Garden & Formal Garden Areas • Activity: Students seek to identify butterflies and note behaviors. • Teaching aids: Checklist of butterflies and behaviors. 5. Butterfly Tag • Locations: Open grass areas adjacent to the Fragrance Garden or in the Gude Garden area. • Activity: Students play a physical game of tag to learn about predator and prey relationships. • Teaching aids: pin flags, flags, habitat game markers. ACTIVITY 1. – WHAT IS A BUTTERFLY Location/Activity Anywhere, suggest gazebos and sitting areas marked on map. Key Terms: Lepidoptera Head Thorax Abdomen Tarsi Antennae Proboscis Compound Molting Exoskeleton Metamorphosis Nectar Insect Chrysalis Pupa Instar Leading questions/discussion: After finding a quiet location where you can sit, tell your group that we are going to find out what makes a butterfly a butterfly. Ask for or select a volunteer. Dress the volunteer up as a butterfly while you discuss each of the butterfly parts. Pull out parts one at a time and follow script. Butterflies are insects, and like all insects they are classified as a type of animal and having three well-defined body parts and six legs. Can you help me name the three main body parts? (Head, Thorax, and Abdomen) Well this butterfly (volunteer) already has a head. How about if we pretend your head is a butterfly’s head? Now I will give you an abdomen (part of body behind thorax) and a thorax (middle portion of an insect that bears the legs and wings). Let’s pretend you have eyes like a butterfly. Did you know butterflies have very good eyesight? They have compound eyes. What do you think compound eyes are? Butterflies have several lenses (6000 separate lenses) in each eye that help them to see extremely well. Compound means more than one. Here in the backpack they have given us a special eyepiece that we can look through to see an example of many lenses however when the butterfly sees an image it appears as a mosaic-type image - not the image repeating itself as in this lens. Let’s take a look and compare. Pass around to all students. Is there anything else we should attach to the butterfly’s head?(Antennae!) Here is your antenna. By the way can anyone tell me if this were a moth would the antennae look the same? (moth antennae would be feathered or in some species the antennae may look like a long filament but it would not be clubbed as butterfly antennae are) When a butterfly searches for nectar it uses its antennae to seek out sweet and tasty nectar. Antennae are also important for balance and seeking a mate. Nectar is a sugary liquid that plants make inside the flower in order to attract a pollinator. And pollinators such as butterflies need nectar for food. What kind of mouth does a butterfly have? Does this butterfly’s mouth look like a butterfly’s mouth? No way – a butterfly uses a mouthpart called a proboscis. A proboscis is like a hollow straw that curls up under its head and is extended when the butterfly uses it to suck up their food. A butterfly’s food includes flower nectar, sugars from rotting fruit, tree sap, and mineral salts (usually males are observed imbibing salts from mud puddles, manure or drying wet areas). These mineral salts are passed on to the female butterfly during mating. Three local species, Morning Cloak, Question Mark and the Comma are three local butterfly species that overwinter as adults and depend upon tree sap for food. Ooops, we have forgotten to attach this butterfly’s legs – how many legs does a butterfly have? (insects have six legs) Let’s attach your legs. How does a butterfly use its legs? (to land on a flower) Not only does the butterfly use its legs to land on a flower, but also on the very bottom of the butterfly’s legs are special organs called tarsi. Tarsi allow the butterfly to taste with its feet! A female adult butterfly will use its very good eyesight to find just the right plant to land on and then, use its tarsi to taste it. If it is the right plant, the female butterfly will lay her eggs on it. Does our volunteer look like a butterfly yet? What’s missing?(wings!) That’s right wings. Butterflies are in the insect order Lepidoptera. Lepidoptera means, “scaled wing”. It is the scales on their four wings that give butterflies the beautiful colors that they have. The scales are very tiny, dust-like that under a microscope would appear as thin, overlapping structures. The scales impart color to the wings. Some colors are produced by pigments, chiefly melanins, that are either ingested or else biochemically synthesized. This type of coloration is called Pigmental Coloration. Other colors, termed Structural Coloration are generated by the physical configuration of the scales themselves interacting with the light. This is the case with the iridescence of many tropical species and the metallic blues of the morpho butterflies. Do butterflies always look like this? No, of course not. Butterflies have four stages of development during its lifetime and certain kinds of plants, as we mentioned previously, are very important so the butterfly can complete its life cycle. If this were an adult(stage 1) female Painted Lady she would seek to find a host plant(thistles, daisies/composites, pearly everlasting, hollyhocks, and mallow) to lay her eggs on. The eggs would hatch into caterpillars(stage2 and the first instar of a growing caterpillar). An instar is a growing stage betweens molts in an insects life. As a caterpillar eats the host plant it grows bigger. As it grows it sheds its skin because a caterpillar has an exoskeleton –all insects have an exoskeleton. That means their skeleton is on the very outside of its body verses ours which is on the inside of our body. For example, do we shed our skin when we grow bigger? No of course not. Our skin stretches, but on a caterpillar when it grows larger the skeleton cannot stretch, so it falls off and another skeleton is developed. This is called molting. Finally after several moltings the caterpillar looks for a place to rest and complete its next stage of development. The caterpillar will look for a safe place to attach itself to the underside of a leaf or branch. The caterpillar then spins a strong silk button to hang from. It hangs in a J-shape head down, before shedding its skin one last time. The caterpillar’s skin will split along its back and fall off leaving a chrysalis(stage 3, a sheltered state or stage of growth). The chrysalis stage also known as pupa will harden and remain mostly inactive for 7-10 days. During this time, close observation would reveal butterfly structures that are forming inside the chrysalis. After 7-10 days the adult butterfly emerges(stage 4). The changes that take place in an insect’s life, from egg, to caterpillar, to an adult is called metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the abrupt or striking developmental changes in appearance that take place in an animal’s life. Thank you to our volunteer for helping us learn about the parts of a butterfly and its life cycle today. Remove parts and return to backpack. Supporting materials and drawings are on the next page. ACTIVITY 2 - THE BUTTERFLY HABITAT Location/Activity Outdoor Wall Butterfly Garden Each student records answers on the paper provided in the backpack. Key Terms: Pollination Host Plant Stigma Nectar Plant Anther Ovary Pollen Egg Habitat Style Leading questions / discussion: Before taking a closer look at Brookside Gardens’ outdoor butterfly garden, first let’s discuss what a habitat is. Can anyone tell me what a habitat is? A habitat is a place where plants and animals can live successfully. It is the region where a plant or animal naturally grows or lives, its native environment, where a person or thing is normally found. Man-made garden habitats are intended to attract butterflies, birds, bees, small animals, or an array of wildlife. What kind of plants and animals can you see in a garden? Do you see these at your house? Will you see the same plants and animals for example, in Florida? Why or why not? Butterfly gardening is a way to attract local butterflies to your garden. It is a way to increase habitats for butterflies in a small way. The two basic requirements for a butterfly garden are: leaves for the caterpillars to eat (called host plants), and flowers to attract and feed the butterflies (called nectar plants). The butterflies need the plants to survive. Guess what the butterflies help the plants do! Butterflies and many other insects pollinate flowers so that they may set seed and grow again the following year. They depend upon each other. Pollination occurs when tiny pollen (mass of microspores from a seed plant) grains from the male flower part (anther) are transferred to the female flower part (stigma). When a butterfly visits a particular flower to drink nectar, pollen from the male anthers is brushed onto the butterfly’s proboscis and head. Then when the butterfly visits another flower of the same kind, the pollen may drop off or get brushed onto the female flower part (stigma). The pollen then travels down the stigma, through the style(a portion of the pistil connecting the stigma and the ovary), and into the ovary (the part of the pistil which contains the ovules) where it fertilizes an egg (ovule; a small egg). A fertilized egg develops into a seed. What other pollinators can you think of? Bees, wasps, beetles, flies, birds, and the wind, all help pollinate flowers. Remember this is a man-made butterfly garden. That means the Brookside Gardens staff has planted and created this garden with the knowledge of what butterflies need in order to survive in their natural habitats. Butterflies and other pollinators are attracted to the shape, smell, and color of a flower. As butterflies search (for the sweetest-smelling and sweetest nectar) they are most attracted to purple, blue, orange, yellow, pink and white flowers. Some butterflies like red flowers. A flower’s shape is very important to a butterfly because butterflies like to land first before they drink nectar from flowers. Flat daisylike flowers and clusters of small tubular shaped flowers are very favorable to butterflies because they can land and perch on them successfully. Host plants provide the leaves that caterpillars will eat. Butterfly species are very particular about where and what plant they will lay their eggs on. Remember these are called host plants in a butterfly garden. All host plants are also nectar plants but not all nectar plants are host plants. In order to survive butterflies also need warmth, nutrients, and shelter. Now let’s use our exploration and observation skills in the garden. For 2nd graders and up use the worksheet provided in the back pack. Younger groups may prefer to go on a scavenger hunt with the leader to find the items listed below: 1. Three flat topped flowers – what is the plant’s name? 2. Three clusters of tubular-shaped flowers – what is the plant’s name? 3. Three host plants – what is the plant’s name? 4. A mud puddle which supplies extra mineral nutrients that butterflies need. 5. Tall plants that protect butterflies from wind and cold. 6. A woodpile for shelter and over wintering adults. 7. Rocks or flat stones where butterflies can warm their bodies and wings. 8. A nectaring butterfly! 9. A hungry caterpillar! 10. A pollinator besides a butterfly. A question to ponder; do we depend upon the earth to survive? See if your group can come up with answers such as water to drink, air to breath, soil for farming, space to live. We are dependent on the Earth in providing us with natural resources. And we as human beings are keepers of our Earth. It is important for us all to help protect habitats. NAME__________________________________ ACTIVITY 2 – WORKSHEET -THE BUTTERFLY HABITAT Student’s Challenge: Pretend you are a Lepidopterist (a person who studies butterflies) and are checking Brookside Gardens’ butterfly garden to make sure it has the right kinds of food, water, shelter and necessary elements so that butterflies can survive here. As you explore the garden, look for the following and record your observations here: A) Flowers for nectaring. Look for three of each shape. What is the plant’s common name? Flat-topped: Tubular-shaped clusters: 1 2 3 Why are these flower shapes important for butterflies? B) Caterpillar host plants. A plant on which a female butterfly lays her eggs. Name three plants. 1 2 3 C) Puddling spot. What is it and why is it important? _____________________________________________________________ D) Shelter from wind and rain. Name one that the garden has. Why is it important for butterflies? E) Basking Rocks. How do rocks benefit the habitat? __________________________________________________________________________________________ ACTIVITY 3 – A BUTTERFLY’S LIFE Location Fragrance Garden Gazebo – this activity would be a nice follow–up after Activity 1, What Is A Butterfly. Read the book, Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder. Key Terms: Metamorphosis Osmeterium Prolegs Phenomenal Pupates Chrysalis Crochets Spiracles Segments Activity/leading questions/discussion: After seating children, tell them we are going to use our senses to imagine what a growing butterfly’s life is like. Listen and look carefully at each page because at the end of the story we will play a game to learn what kinds of fun facts and information we saw and heard from the story. Close your eyes and imagine you are a caterpillar about to hatch from an egg (children will open eyes at the end of the second page). The name of the book is, Where Butterflies Grow, by Joanne Ryder, pictures by Lynne Cherry. Discussion questions are on the next page. For fun the group leader can toss the butterfly ball to an individual for the answer to each discussion question or to act out (role play) a caterpillar or butterfly action. Child can toss ball to another person for the next question. Discussion topics: (ANSWERS ARE UNDERLINED IN PARENTHESES) 1. Can you name the stages of a butterfly’s life? What is it called when a butterfly changes from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to adult? (Metamorphosis) Phenomenal (extrodinary; remarkable; known through the senses rather than thought or intuition) changes take place as the butterfly develops inside the chrysalis. 2. What does a caterpillar do most of the time? How does it grow bigger? (eats host plant leaves and expels fras, grows bigger and sheds its skin/exoskeleton which is called molting) 3. Some caterpillars have horns. What are they for? Do you know what the scientific name is for a caterpillar’s horns? (Osmeterium - a protrusible forked gland that emits a disagreeable odor especially to birds and other predators – borne on the first thoracic segment of the larvae of many swallowtails and related butterflies) 4. When a caterpillar has had enough to eat, what does it do next? (finds a sheltered place, spins a silken tab to attach itself, and pupates - undergoes internal changes to pass through a life stage into a chrysalis – a pupa of a butterfly). 5. After the butterfly emerges can it fly right away? (No, the wings must first dry and harden) 6. Can you name the parts of a caterpillar? a) Head – covered by a shiny capsule and contains six small simple eyes, three on each side of caterpillars body. Butterflies have excellent eye-sight but the caterpillar can only distinguish between light and dark. Caterpillar eyes are simple called ocelli. A chewing mouth part is located on the underside of the head. Jaws do not move up and down like ours but rather back and forth from the sides of the head toward the middle. b) Segments – 13 of these form the caterpillar’s body. The first three segments contain 3-pairs of true legs. They will form the adult butterfly’s thorax. 5 segments towards the rear of the caterpillar contain false legs known as prolegs. The prolegs will disappear during development and form the butterfly’s abdomen. c) Prolegs – false legs which act as suction cups as the caterpillar moves. d) Crochets -Across the bottom of prolegs are rings of microscopic small bristles shaped like crochet hooks. e) Bristles – cover the body on some butterflies reflecting light so that the caterpillar is less visible to birds. Bristles also make it more difficult for birds to swallow. f) Spiracles – are breathing holes on each side of the caterpillar’s body. They appear as light colored rings with dark centers. ACTIVITY 4 – BUTTERFLY BEHAVIORS AND IDENTIFICATION Location/Activity See map for the location of the following “Hot spots” for watching butterflies: Fragrance Garden Perennial and Formal Gardens Butterfly Wall Garden Trial Garden area Teacher or group leader passes out the color butterfly and behavior checklist to each student (provided in the backpack). Descriptions of some behaviors and nine common/local butterflies are pictured. With your group, look for butterflies and behaviors throughout Brookside Gardens’ butterfly “hotspot areas” listed above. Additional guide-books are provided in the backpack if you see a butterfly (or caterpillar) not shown on the checklist. Add your observation to the entry journal if it is not on our checklist. Leading questions/discussion: Some inquiry-based questions you may want to start off with are: In addition to the “Wings of Fancy” butterfly exhibit, where else might we see butterflies at Brookside Gardens? (near flowering plants) Will we see butterflies in shady areas? (Not very many – most spp. prefer sunny areas and usually do not fly unless the sun is out) What are some of the butterfly’s characteristics that will help us to identify it? (shape of wings, pattern of veins on wings, wing coloration, size, flight pattern) Encourage your group to pretend to be Lepidopterists - people who study and identify butterflies. Tell your group, “when you see a butterfly, we will all stop to observe its behavior, coloration, and flight pattern”. Then we will try and match it to a butterfly on our checklist or we can look it up in the field guide that is provided in our backpack. ACTIVITY 5 – BUTTERFLY TAG Location: Open grass area – see green color highlighted on map Game Pieces: Marking pin flags for nest and habitats Red and yellow flags for players – two allocated for each person Laminated signs –bird nest, zinnia, milkweed, butterfly bush Activity Set Up This is simple to set-up and fun for the children to play and get exercise. Use the pin flags from the pack to set up 7, approximately 6’ diameter circles (three on each side of a middle circle – see diagram). Use the labels to mark each of the circles as follows: The center circle is called the bird’s nest and the surrounding circles are three different habitats/flowers (two of each kind, zinnia, butterfly bush, milkweed). Place the labels opposite of each other on the field. Discussion Tell children in this game you will learn about how plants, pollinators, and predators interact with each other. The object of the game is for the birds to catch a non-protected butterfly or caterpillar. Many plant species depend upon and require animals to move their pollen around. If a plant population does not receive pollen from another population it will eventually go extinct. Ask the students if they know what extinct means. Then ask them if they can name some species that are extinct. To encourage an animal to move around, the plant offers the animal food. Butterflies are some of the most common pollinators. However, butterflies are often eaten by predators like birds. In this game some of you (80% of group) are going to be butterflies (marked by a single yellow “football flag”) “pollinating plants” and some of you (20% of group) are going to be birds (marked by red “football flags”) trying to “eat” the butterflies. Notes/rules – turn page over. Notes/rules: 1. Zone in center of the field is bird’s nest – make a circle with pin flags and mark with the laminated sign “Bird’s Nest” from the backpack. 2. The other zones scattered around field are the butterfly habitats; they contain plants that need to be pollinated by butterflies and plants that the butterflies need to complete their life cycle. Make circles with pin flags and mark with laminated signs, “Zinnia”, “Butterfly Bush”, and “Milkweed” habitats. 3. At the beginning of the game all butterflies must be in a butterfly habitat. When the game begins each butterfly must leave the habitat they are in and run to a new one. This represents pollination. 4. The birds must leave their nest and try to tag (by pulling a flag off) a butterfly, representing predation. The turn ends when every butterfly has either been tagged or is in a new habitat. 5. At the end of the turn any butterfly that has been tagged becomes a bird (make sure all new birds receive red flags). Any bird that did not tag a butterfly, starved to death and becomes a butterfly (make sure all new butterflies receive yellow flag). 6. If there is a habitat that does not have a butterfly in it, the population has gone extinct (because it did not receive any pollen) and it is removed. Game Length 1. The game ends when either all the children are birds. In this case the birds consumed all their prey and experienced mass starvation; 2. All the children are butterflies. The birds are not very good at catching butterflies and starved to death. 3. Only one butterfly habitat is left. So many plant populations went extinct that both the butterflies and the birds become extinct as well. 4. Time allotted for the game runs out. In this case, we have a perfectly balanced, healthy ecosystem. Game Options 1. Let children wear another football flag from the ziplock bag that says “butterfly defenses”. Have each butterfly wear two flags instead of one. If the bird pulls off the flag marked with a particular “butterfly protection” the butterfly continues to live for another turn. If it’s unmarked, second flag was pulled first, it deceases and becomes a bird.