ACTIVITY 7

Hypothesis Meets Reality

Teaching Objectives:

1. Students will learn that a scientific hypothesis is not always immediately supported by scientific evidence.
2. Students will learn the procedures that scientists go through to tag monarch butterflies in order to determine facts about the butterflies' migratory routes.
3. Students will replicate the migration of monarch butterflies by a method of choice.
4. Students will trace the migratory route of monarch butterflies on the Monarch Migration Map.
5. Students will learn that books of fiction can be based on factual information.
6. Students will learn to notice the dates of publication of books and magazines.
7. Students will learn that magazines can be important sources of factual information.
8. Students will learn to read the preface to a book and note the information contained in it.

Materials Needed:

• National Geographic, "Found at Last: the Monarch's Winter Home", by Fred A. Urquhart, Ph.D.; August 1976, pages 161-173
• National Geographic, Earth Almanac, "Monarch: a Multinational Asset", August 1996, page 136
• Cooking Light, "The Monarch's Migratory Waltz", by John Villani; October, 1996; pages 58-62
• The Travels of Monarch X, by Ross E. Hutchins, Rand McNally & Company, 1966 (OP); Dr. Urquhart and his work are mentioned in the preface of this book. The book itself tells of the journey of one of the tagged butterflies which was part of Dr. Urquhart's study of monarch migration.
• Map containing North America and Central America

Procedure:

Read the text of the book The Travels of Monarch X, 1966, by Ross E. Hutchins, to the class. Discuss Preface to the book and the Scientific Notes pages which give background information on monarchs and their migration. Emphasize the sentences in the preface, "Only the beginning and the end of the journey of Monarch X are definitely known; what happened along the way we can only guess. Scientific evidence gathered from the recapture of other Monarchs indicates, however, that Monarch X probably did not fly directly towards its final destination in Mexico, but followed a curving route that took it southward to the vicinity of Georgia and then westward along the Gulf of Mexico."

Read "Found at Last: the Monarch's Winter Home", page 161, from the August 1976 issue of National Geographic, in which Dr. Fred A. Urquhart discusses how he found the winter home of the monarch butterflies in Mexico.

Read "Earth Almanac", page 136, of the August 1996 issue of National Geographic which supports the hypothesis mentioned in Dr. Hutchins' book that monarch butterflies fly in curved migratory paths.

Discussion:

Define the term hypothesis: something assumed because it seems likely to be a true explanation; theory.(1)

Point out the number of years between the publication of the book and the 1996 article on monarch butterflies. Use the 1976 article from National Geographic as an intermediate step in proving the hypothesis about curved routes.

Point out that Dr. Urquhart is mentioned in the Preface to the book and is the author of the article on butterfly migration.

Discuss how the author of the book used scientific information to write a book of fiction.

For a discussion of why to tag monarchs, see Welcome to Monarch Watch!. Discuss the problems associated with the process of tagging the butterflies. This site also leads to "Monarch Watch Curriculum" which has lessons that discuss:

"the concept of endangered phenomena; the delicate balance between an animal and its environment; the conflict between human resources and economic needs and the conservation of habitats"

Map the actual monarchs' migratory journey on a classroom map. Have the students fill in the migratory routes on an Outline Map of North America. The article "The Monarch's Migratory Waltz" has wonderful pictures promoting ecotourism to the area where the monarchs travel.

Devise a means for conducting a class tagging experiment. For example, at a very basic level draw a butterfly on a sheet of paper and give the paper butterfly to one person. Instruct that person to note on the sheet where the butterfly was when it was given to him or her and the date and time. Create a form or download Butterfly Migration Worksheet, Part 1 and Butterfly Migration Worksheet, Part 2 and use copies of them in the experiment. Glue one of each form to either side of a piece of posterboard. After a specified number of hours, instruct the person to pass the posterboard on to another person. The next person logs the same information. At a specific date and time, the last person to have the butterfly is to return it to the classroom. The class then can map the butterfly's route around the school by looking at the entries on the sheet. The experiment can be made more complex by adding more butterflies, some of which will not return, or by sending the butterflies to other schools in the community or outside the community. To actually send "butterflies" to Mexico, join the Journey North Project.

For an additional lesson on monarch butterflies and migratory animals, see Why Do Animals Migrate? from the California Technology Project.

(1) Thorndike, E. L., and Barnhart, Clarence L. Thorndike-Barnhart Junior Dictionary. Chicago: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. Publishers, 1997.