Monarch Mysteries

In this virtual class, students explore the monarch butterfly’s journey and identify challenges they face throughout their life cycle in an interactive migration activity. Students will also explore the mysteries still surrounding these incredible butterflies, the cultural significance of monarchs, and how to help bolster declining monarch populations through community science.

Curriculum Standards Supported:

Colorado Academic Science Standards

• SC09-GR.3-S.2-GLE.1 The duration and timing of life cycle events such as reproduction and longevity vary across organisms and species.
• SC09-GR.4-S.2-GLE.3 There is interaction and interdependence between and among living and nonliving components of ecosystems.
• SC09-GR.5-S.2-GLE.1 All organisms have structures and systems with separate functions.
• SC09-GR.6-S.2-GLE.1 Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms, populations, and entire species.

Next Generation Science Standards

• 3-LS1-1 Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
• 4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
• 5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
• MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
• MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
• MS-LS1-5 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.