It is important to confront children with nature and loss of biodiversity to generate a kind of "bottom-up activity".
If children are enthusiastic about a topic they will keep asking parents, other relatives and friends about it and tell them what they know until the grown-ups will give in and start to tackle it. Thus getting children interested in butterflies and the loss of butterfly species leads to a widespread propagation of information in the population so that solutions are looked for and measures to help butterflies can be taken.
Here are ideas for projects to help butterflies and maybe even slow down the extinction of species that families and teachers can use.
For Families:
Dear parents,
To get your children interested in butterflies as well as nature in general let them experience nature at a young age. You can do that by taking them for regular walks in nearby forests and by talking to them about nature and the extinction of species. Let your children count the butterflies they see and tell them about the beautiful butterfly species that you could still experience in your childhood. Show them pictures of the blaze of colours of butterflies and moths and let the children look for them in nature.
It is important to let young children experience insects early so they do not develop a disgust for animals like caterpillars. If you have a garden let the children discover it closely and let them use it. That is how they get an interest in nature. For that purpose your garden should be designed in a nature-friendly way.
Another possibility to get children enthusiastic about butterflies is to let them watch the metamorphosis of butterflies from pupae to their final stage as butterflies by constructing a herbarium. The young researchers should learn about the conditions that a butterfly needs to complete its metamorphosis. This will clearly show them what will happen if a condition that is inconvenient to humans is not fulfilled. Thus you can easily get children into close contact with butterflies and the extinction of species.
For the nursery school or kindergarten level (age 3-6):
Fill the children with enthusiasm by letting them touch and experience the insects. At a young age you can still direct their interest. If you can, design an outdoor space that provides a habitat for varied species. Also take walks to familiarize the children with nature. Once you have got the children interested you just have to point out the threats for species. A project day showing children unthreatened as well as threatened butterflies in their natural habitat is a good idea. Show them the living conditions of butterflies and afterwards demonstrate to them what will happen if one of those conditions is not fulfilled, i.e. the extinction of a species. Do not hide the fact that this is often caused by humans. In the end you can ask them how they would help butterflies.
For the primary (elementary) level (age 6-10):
The best idea for this level is a project day as well. I organized a project day for 8 to 9 year-old pupils and was surprised by their enthusiasm. First I talked with them about the basic theoretical background about butterflies and the threats to their survival and then we constructed herbaria for caterpillars from a neighbouring wood to fix in their minds what they had learned in the theoretical part. The pupils thus had the chance to keep the collected caterpillars in their own herbaria and to watch their metamorphosis. If you find that a child is not really interested, tell them to bring the caterpillars back to a place where they can find food and not to leave them to starve in the herbarium.
In the end every child got the task to show their parents the brochures of the (German) environmental protection organization BUND and to tell them about their project day. This can start a “bottom-up activity” and thus help butterflies extensively. As I wanted to fasten this process and provide a habitat for some species, I planted some butterfly-friendly plants in the school garden. The butterflies and caterpillars attracted to this garden will remind the pupils of the threats to butterflies so that they will get on their relatives’ nerves until they will tackle the problem of the threats to butterflies.
If you need help in organizing a project day (e.g. worksheets) or in constructing a herbarium, contact me.
