Third graders at Greene County Elementary had a memorable lesson on the lifecycle of butterflies as participants in a monarch eggs pilot project.
Lynne Campbell, the Prairie Lakes AEA science/STEM consultant through Iowa State University, and the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, brought the project to the school.
About 180 monarch eggs were delivered to the third grade classrooms. There they were quickly transferred to petri dishes to hatch. Caterpillars grew and the chrysalis were formed. Students watched as the chrysalis became butterflies less than two weeks later.
More than 100 butterflies were raised by the students. They were tagged and then released. The students wish them success on their long trip to Mexico.
Data from the project will be part of the monarch egg project, which seeks to repopulate the monarch butterfly.
