Animal planet to highlight local school

Back row: Andreas Holtzer, Luke Murray, Sarah Mills, Griffon Mahon, Sam King, Duncan McNelis, Karrin Thompson, Maddie Thompson, Emeka Eqwuagu, Noor Khleif, Gabby Tharkur. Front Row: Sophie Scarana, Jessica Lauman-Lairson, Brian Garner, Taylor Riddick, Jacqui Kramer, Emma Donoghue, Sara Howard.

It isn't often that children's work in an elementary classroom attracts the attention of outside media, so when The Barrie School was approached by Animal Planet, a subsidiary of Discovery Channel, both teachers and children in the mixed fourth and fifth grade class were excited beyond belief!

The school had been selected as one of six schools nationwide to feature in a new series Animal Planet is developing, called Spring Watch USA and scheduled to air in the Spring of 2007.   The series will highlight schools from around the nation committed to promoting wildlife and conservation, as well as the students and teachers who are working to make a difference.  

The show producers were intrigued by the work they'd heard this class of mixed fourth and fifth graders were doing - growing monarch butterflies, tagging and releasing them, as well as tracking their fall migration to Mexico.

"The monarch butterfly population," teacher, Cathy Carpenter, explained, "has, in recent years, been adversely affected by the rapid decline of its habitat which has diminished its food sources due to the aggressive development [by humans] of the butterfly's natural range...they are the victims of the introduction of genetically modified crops in North America and intense deforestation in Mexico."

The focus of the classroom exercise is not just to learn about the life cycle of an insect, but also to increase community awareness of the importance of habitat preservation and respect for the other inhabitants of the world around us.

The long-awaited Discovery film crew arrived at Barrie and, despite the drizzle, captured all the most important events of day! They filmed the children transplanting monarch larvae onto milkweed, which they had gathered earlier in the day from the Monarch Waystation. The larvae had been shipped to them from Monarch Watch, a cooperative network of students, teachers, volunteers and researchers, affiliated with the University of Kansas, and dedicated to the study of the Monarch butterfly. The waystation, which had been planted in the summer, serves as a 'pit stop' for the monarchs to rest and feed midway on their long Fall and Spring migrations.

Other events of the day captured on film included the children's field trip to the Brookside Gardens 'Wings of Fancy' butterfly exhibit in Wheaton and the tagging of adult butterflies with special tags provided by Monarch Watch. These tags have a unique tracking number, and a phone number to call, to report monarch sightings. These calls are logged by Monarch Watch and made available online for the children to track the progress of the butterflies to their nesting grounds in Mexico.

This being the second year in which the school has participated in the Monarch Watch program, the teachers and children are hopeful that at least one of the 67 butterflies released will safely reach its destination.

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