BY TOM WEARING
Review Editor
Fifth graders at St. Joseph Catholic School were recently able to witness the metamorphasis of insect life, having raised Monarch butterflies from caterpillars in their respective classrooms.
Under the guidance of fifth-grade teachers Peggy Boggs and Jennifer Bero, the students’ project reached its culmination last Wednesday with the release of more than 30 butterflies.
In an effort to study the migratory process of the Monarchs to Mexico (their winter home), the children tagged the butterflies through an entomology program sponsored by the University of Kansas.
The Monarch Larval Monitoring Project is a science project that involves student and adult volunteers from across the U.S. and Canada.
The St. Joseph teachers said the school project was added to the fifth-grade curriculum to teach the students to collect data and better understand how and why the Monarch population varies in distribution and abundance during the breeding season in North America.
St. Joseph Catholic School is located at 703 N. Lapeer Rd. in Lake Orion.
For information about the school, call 248-693-6215 or email to: tdarga@stjosephlakeorion.org.