The Monarch Project

By: Robert Dutches, Marj Spangler

Teaching Team:

School: Linwood Middle School

North Brunswick, NJ

Grade Levels: 7

Academic Focus/

Core Curriculum Standards:

The Arts (Visual and Performing): 1.1, 1.2

Language Arts Literacy: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

World Languages: 7.2

Consumer, Family & Life Skills: 9.2C, D

The Monarch Project honors the legacy of former Linwood student Joey Rogers who succumbed to Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS - a primary immune deficiency involving lymphocytes and platelets) in the spring of 2007. Much of Joey’s young life was spent at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, where, although very ill himself, he found ways to reach out to the others and make their hospitalization a little more tolerable. Since Joey loved monarch butterflies, the project will honor his legacy. Students will participate in various cross-curricular activities that revolve around the monarch butterfly with the ultimate goal of raising the spirits of the young patients at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center.

Target Audience:

Patients at the Robert Wood Johnson Pediatric Oncology Ward; Linwood MS students (butterfly garden).

The project will continue through the 2007-08 school year. The butterfly garden portion of the project will be completed during the summer and school year of 2008.

Project Scheduling: Each discipline schedules the work during class.

Equipment Needed: Arts and crafts materials, audio tapes, tape recorders, butterfly eggs, netting, grow lights, seedling pots, milkweed plants, top soil, landscaping block, mulch, irrigation hose and gardening tools

The Arts (Visual and Performing): Students will create butterfly motifs to paint on ceiling tiles, which will be installed in the Pediatric Oncology Ward to brighten the environment of bedridden children. Selected artwork will be published as note cards to be sold in the hospitality shop.

Language Arts Literacy: Through the study of creative writing and figurative language students will write poetry and short stories with butterfly themes. Students will be invited to publish their work for distribution to children in the Pediatric Oncology Ward. Books on tape will be recorded by the students and be distributed to patients.

Science: Students will research the life cycle, migratory habits, and habitats of moths and butterflies. Students will apply this research when creating a butterfly garden at Linwood Middle School. Students will propagate milkweed to plant in the garden, gather butterfly eggs, and hatch and release the monarchs in the fall.

Social Studies: Students use geography to research and map out the migration route of the Monarch butterfly.

World Languages: Through the Spanish department, students will learn about “The Day of the Dead” and the significance of the Monarch butterfly in Hispanic culture. 

Consumer, Family, and Life Skills: Students build character and ethics by participating in art and literature-based activities that improve the lives of hospital patients. Students also develop interpersonal communication skills with the cards, poems, and stories that they send to the patients.

Hurdles Encountered:

We anticipate that there maybe some difficulty harvesting enough eggs for all four science classes The monarchs will hatch at different times

We will purchase hatching kits from a reliable supplier to ensure an adequate quantity.

Each class will schedule its own release day.

Performance-based Education: Students use language arts and apply scientific knowledge in designing and executing the project.

Students work together during the process of planting and nurturing the butterfly garden.

The Monarch Project combines visual arts, language arts, world languages, science, social studies, and life skills.

Students develop the characteristic of caring by participating in a project that positively affects the lives of other children who are hospitalized.

Celebration: School and community partners will join for a dedication ceremony for the Monarch Memorial Garden and the unveiling of a memorial bench followed by a reception for all.

Recognition: Media coverage of the event by local news station thanking all school and community partners.

Key Findings: TBD. It is hoped the project will develop great empathy, teamwork and compassion in the students.

Community partnerships with RWJ Medical Center, as well as local businesses, service organizations, and our Partners in PACES from Maxson and Hubbard Middle Schools, Plainfield will help in the Monarch Project. The Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center will work with Linwood Middle School to provide a list of approved materials for the art component of the project and facilitate the installation of the decorated ceiling tiles into the rooms of the pediatric patients and sale of note cards in the hospitality shop. All proceeds that Linwood M.S. receives will be donated to the medical center.

Students will keep journals throughout the project and respond to writing prompts that focus on ethical values as they complete their reflections. We will also keep a video journal to share our reflections with our school and community partners.

We hope to develop a pre and post project questionnaires for students to complete. The true measure of the project will be the completion of each of its curricular components.