Being in my second year of Monarch raising, I am by no means an expert. However, having had the opportunity to share my experience with the summer camps at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, I am able to compare sharing this experience with small groups versus large classes.
In my first year, I shared the journey of my Monarchs over my personal social media.
In my second year, I did not use social media at all. Instead, I shared the journey through a series of in-person opportunities. Most of my test subjects, as it were, were the campers at the museum I was working at.
However, sharing the growth of two Monarch butterfly from egg is not easy when you have group of 30 eager children. While I made use of the Museum’s microscope camera, I did not end up introducing the caterpillars to the children until they were about an inch long. At this size, I was more confident a child would not accidentally crush the caterpillar (though I had no intention of passing them around by hand). I knew that the children would be frustrated if I were trying to point out something smaller than they could reasonably see.
A fortuitous thing happened during this time. The collections side of the museum had had a donation of a digital enlarger (like a microscope but viewed on a screen). It had been underused on the collection side and so it was offered to programming when the Public Lab was cleaned. I had set up a few interesting programming materials like a moccasin, a feather, some fossils and a cornhusk doll for people to view with it. While it was black and white, i thought that it would the best way for a while group of kids to view the caterpillars.
While this was a success, I did underestimate the curiosity of children. Most of them insisted on coming up in person to see the caterpillars as well as looking on the screen. They asked very insightful questions about the growth cycle of the Monarchs, and some of them knew a lot about the topic already.
I was lucky enough to be able to film the caterpillar shedding its old skin as it went up a growth level, and at the end of the week, brought the caterpillars back out for a growth check. The kids loved seeing the video and while some of them lost interest, I had a core group of about 4 kids who just sat and watched the caterpillars eat for 20 minutes (which for kids age 6-12, this was very impressive). They were also super excited for me to show them the milkweed plants I had been harvesting leaves from, and they helped me find a good leaf for them.
The second fortuitous event that occurred was the timing. The Monarchs decided to hatch on the very last day of camp. While I couldn’t get them to the kids fast enough for them to see the hatching, they were able to meet the butterflies. The kids decided that they too, had to be butterflies and all immediately started lying on the floor, acting as though they were coming out of the Chrysalis. Overall, I think it was very successful.
