SVCA K/1 Students participate in NASA Experiment

by Theresa Farris

December 03, 2009

Wednesday Nov. 4
SVCA students are one of 400 schools chosen to take part in the NASA experiment to determine how the microgravity of space will affect the development of monarch caterpillars. NASA will watch from cameras on the International Space Station (ISS) while students will observe from earth.
On November 4th Monarch Watch broadcast a request for up to 20 classrooms to participate in a parallel study of the monarch rearing experiment here on Earth. Forty-eight hours after the November 5th deadline, Monarch Watch had received over 800 responses from people interested in participating in this unique educational experience. Three monarch caterpillars will travel on the space shuttle, Atlantis, to the International Space Station (ISS)
More than 400 classrooms, home schoolers and individuals in the U.S. east of the Continental Divide received monarch caterpillar kits from Monarch Watch. Service Valley Charter Academy K/1 students were excited to have the opportunity to work with Monarch Watch, and NASA to further their knowledge of the wonders of the Monarch Butterfly.
K/1 students check for up to date information about how the monarchs in space are progressing by logging on to www.monarchwatch.org/space/ This is the official program page where you can find photos, videos, links, and other resources.

Nov. 12 Thursday
We received our package of caterpillars today. We were eager to open our package and see the size of our 3rd stage larvae and get a look at the artificial food the caterpillars would be eating for the duration of the experiment. We were pleased to find all 12 caterpillars had made the trip unharmed and in good condition.
We first had to assemble our butterfly rearing chambers following the instructions provided by Monarch Watch. The rearing chamber consisted of a clear box approximately the same size as the chamber on the ISS. The artificial diet was transferred into the pillboxes and glued into position in the chamber. A small red container was placed in the chamber and will be filled with a nectar solution when the butterflies emerge.
Nov. 16 Monday
The protocol for the shuttle and installation on the ISS required the larvae to remain in the dark for 80-90 hours from the time they were prepared for the shuttle until they were loaded into the incubator on the ISS. K/1 students wanted to follow the same protocol, so

K/1 students watching the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.

our caterpillars were kept in their original containers in a classroom cubby until Monday morning. On Monday morning, K/1 students carefully took turns transferring the caterpillars to their rearing chambers. At 1:30 p.m., students sat down to watch the live broadcast of the launch of space shuttle Atlantis. We had difficulty with the live feed of the launch at about the 30-second mark, so we did the next best thing and watched the recording of the flight on YouTube minutes later. After watching the launch, we delivered the “cat”ellite stations to the locations we chose to replicate the experiment. We were wanting to collect data from multiple locations so we housed Station One in our K/1 classroom.
Station Two was delivered to Mr. Monroe’s Science classroom in the upper grade building, while Station Three was delivered to Mrs. Wimp’s classroom on the opposite side of the elementary building from the K/1 classroom.

Nov. 17 Tuesday

Station One housed in K/1 classroom.

K/1 astronauts did a space walk to the “cat”ellite stations to check on the larvae growth progress. We were checking to see if any of our 3rd instar staged larvae had shed their skin to enter the 4th instar stage. We were looking to see if there were signs of the head capsule that is shed before the larvae sheds its skin. The head capsule is about the size of a pencil point. We had a caterpillar in Station One and Station Two with head capsules visible on the bottom of the station. During our observations only one caterpillar was continuing to eat the artificial diet. There were two possible reasons for this: the caterpillars were in the rest mode, or they were just not interested in eating the food that was available. We have decided we will have to keep a close eye on all our stations and decide what options we have available to us if they continue to show no interest in eating.
Nov. 18 Wednesday
The Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with International Space Station.

Nov. 19 Thursday
The first photos and videos of monarch caterpillars on space station put on web.
Our students were excited to see the first pictures of the chamber and were curious as to why there was so much debris floating in the chamber.

Nov. 20 Friday
We have lost 5 out of the 12 caterpillars we started with. The caterpillars are not increasing in size and their level of activity is minimal. We considered that the limited amount of light the caterpillars are receiving and the temperature might be variables that we can change to help increase the chance of the caterpillars surviving over the holiday weekend. We have made the decision to move the remaining caterpillars to Station One where the temperature is consistent and the light source is on a timer to provide 12-hour light cycle.
We set up a small lamp to increase the temperature. After checking on the Monarch in Space page, we found out that we are not the only school participating in the experiment that is having difficulty with our caterpillars eating the artificial food.

Nov. 23 Monday
We checked Station One and we are now down to 5 remaining caterpillars. Two of the caterpillars look strong and healthy but are still not very active. We are afraid we are going to lose two more before Thanksgiving break.

Nov. 24 Tuesday
On the International Space Station all three caterpillars have pupated. Two of the chrysalis attached to sides of the chamber. The remaining chrysalis was not able to attach and is free floating in the chamber. K/1 students are excited about the development of the monarch caterpillars in space, but are learning the lesson that not all experiments go as planned. We are now down to 3 of 12 caterpillars and our caterpillars are not even close to pupating.

Nov. 30 Monday
We have 3 surviving caterpillars lost another one before the morning was over. The class decided we need to check our butterfly garden in hopes of finding some milkweed to feed our remaining caterpillars. We found several very small plants and spent time transferring the plants to pots in the greenhouse to give the plants the best chance of growing in case we were successful with feeding the caterpillars their traditional food. We placed a small plant into Station One. Immediately one of the caterpillars started to eat.
We were ecstatic but we’re concerned with the smaller caterpillar not wanting to eat.

Dec. 1 Tuesday
Both of the caterpillars are still alive on Tuesday morning. Still not much activity and very little of the milkweed plant has been eaten.

Dec. 2 Wednesday
We are now down to one very small caterpillar. We have kept a very close eye on it’s activity and we are seeing signs of it eating the milkweed plant.

Dec. 3
On the International Space Station two of the monarchs have emerged. There are videos and photos of the newly emerged butterflies on www.monarchwatch.org/space The photos and videos are amazing!
Check back for further updates!