Educating Risa

The afternoon class the boys took at the zoo’s homeschool day was called “On Gossamer Wings”. It was about butterflies and moths. Here’s some of what they did:

The class began with a hands-on demo of the differences between our bodies and butterfly bodies. To demonstrate, the instructor transformed a volunteer into a butterfly, putting on a thorax vest, and extra pair of legs (with her arms and legs that makes 6), an velcro abdomen (she did NOT like the big butt!), wings, antennae, compound eyes, etc. The instructor also tied in the 5 senses, talking about how butterfly senses are different from ours, as their body composition is so different. I knew butterflies tasted with their feet, and could figure out that they breathed through their abdomen (butt) as that’s where their spiracles are. But I had no idea of the fine hairs just between a butterflies wings and body—they hear with their armpits!

The kids then were broken into small groups and  spent about 5 minutes at different stations, exploring, playing games, etc. My boys started at the wings station, where they examined butterfly wings under magnification, and pondered why butterflies have such different patterns on their wings. (Camouflage for dull-coloured ones, the “warning! I’m poisonous!” idea for colourful ones, mimics of these “poisonous ones”, eye-spots to startle predators, etc.)

The second station was “Moth or Butterfly?” There was an instructor there who played a game with the kids with moth and butterfly flashcards, asking them how they could tell which one a given card was. Some of these were very tricky, as some moths are colourful, and some butterflies dull.

The third station was about the butterfly life cycle and cocoons vs. chrysalises.

The final station was my favourite, about pollination. Butterflies and moths—not just bees—assist in pollinating our flowers and foods, as pollen gets stuck on them when they insert their long proboscis into a flower. How long can their proboscis be? As long as their body, or even more!

There was a neat demo here, with a body-length proboscis fashioned out of drinking straws for the kids to try. Their goal was to insert the proboscis into the cup and touch the blue dot (the nectar). It was surprisingly hard to do!

For the final part of the class, we headed over to the newly refurbished butterfly house. Daegan spent a lot of time looking at the different chrysalises, and I learned why some chrysalises are shiny gold, like a jewel, or have a shiny gold dot. (To camouflage among leaves high up in a tree, looking like dappled sunlight reflecting.)

There were several butterflies flitting about, and occasionally landing on either plants, or the fruit sampler plates:

The boys want to head back to the butterfly house tomorrow, wearing bright orange/yellow/red clothes, so as the butterflies will be more likely to land on them (thinking they are food or flower).