Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

 

With many children beginning their school year online, parents and teachers are challenged to make digital learning meaningful. A way to more deeply engage children in learning may lie in moving away from viewing a digital device to learn and moving towards first using a digital device as a tool to document the extraordinary in the ordinary. In the process, you may find yourselves beginning to engage with the world as scientists just outside your own front door.  

In the last blog post, I shared how my preservice teaching students were engaging in inquiry by documenting the development of their own monarch caterpillars. They were charged with exploring the outdoors to collect fresh milkweed leaves to keep it well-fed. This past week, I've reveled in the excited texts and emails from these students sharing how their interest and inquiry has expanded into the spaces and lives of others where they live. Fascinated by the tiny caterpillars, they were given names by roommates and displayed in a protective place of prominence. One student who had gone home shared that his mom became so invested, she had ordered a butterfly habitat from Amazon and was eagerly awaiting its delivery. Over the weekend, a student asked her family help her search for milkweed and discovered they had one in their front garden. Upon closer look, they found three large caterpillars munching on the leaves. They also noticed a cocoon on a post with a small hole in it. Curiosity drove them to gently dissect the abandoned cocoon.  Inside they found the casing of the caterpillar that had morphed into the moth that flew away. She wrote about how "cool" it was to find all sorts of connections and how this interest in the ordinary got her family invested in learning about the extraordinary monarch caterpillars. "They have now been adopted into the family as I have already received an update from my dad today!" She included this photo of one of the adoptees. 

Now is an ideal time to take a walk outdoors for more than exercise for you and your child. Find a spot to sit, relax, and take in your surroundings. This summer's fourth generation of monarch butterflies are in abundance, preparing to make their trip to Mexico at five miles per hour and may lead you to intriguing phenomena that are often overlooked. If you don't know what plants to look for to find caterpillars, google "milkweed in Iowa" and you will find photos of at least nine different species. You will have the most luck finding them on Swamp Milkweed or the Common Milkweed. Once you find the plant, look carefully under the leaves for caterpillars as well as on the top. When you find one, spend time just watching it, closely observing with your child. What do you notice about its colors? How can you tell the head from the tail? How does it hang onto the leaf? What do the feet look like? How many does it have? Photograph it from different angles. Zoom in on different parts. Video record it eating. Once you physically engage in the phenomenon of the living caterpillar and document it with a digital device, then use a digital device to learn more. Linda Fitzgerald, UNI Professor Emerita and advisor to the Iowa Regents' Center suggests exploring the website, Monarch Joint Venture. In addition to information about the monarch, one can find opportunities to engage in community science or citizen science, enabling you and your child to be scientists, just outside your front door.