Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Name: Monarch Butterfly Migration

Content Area: Science
Grade Level(s): 2nd
Content Standard Addressed: S2L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the life cycles of
different living organisms.

Technology Standard Addressed: 7. Global Collaborator

Selected Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity: Journey North

URL(s) to support the lesson: https://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarchs

Describe how you would incorporate an Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity in your
classroom:
Students will be tracking the migration of monarch butterflies in this lesson. The lesson will last for the
duration of January to May. The students will track the migration of the butterflies using the Journey North
Journal once a week. The students can record questions, hypothesis and document discoveries in these
journals. The students will also view sightings of the butterflies using the sightings feature on this site. Lastly,
the students will view maps and obtain data from them to record in their journals.
The students will use the Livecam to view the butterflies once a week and record their findings in the journal.
The students will also read about the symbolic monarch migration in Mexico and respond to these students
and their word. The students will be able to see who received it, which will implement the collaboration. The
students can search for other classes through grade level and find who received their symbolic monarch.

What technologies would be required to implement this proposed learning activity in a classroom?
Access to a digital device and the Internet would be needed on a weekly basis to complete these activities.
Everything else will be accessible through Journey North’s website.
Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience (note: all of them may not be
addressed in the project, but most should be if you are reaching a high LoTi Level).
a. Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom and often beyond their
school: The students will be sending a symbolic monarch butterfly to other classes in Mexico. The
students will find who received them through the Journey North website by finding the grade level and
elementary school.

b. Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (creating original data and or producing original
products as a result of engaging in a project): The students will be conducting a semester long
scientific process. The students will form hypothesis, will observe the butterflies and track their
progress, and record all their data in the Journey North journal. All of the data will be collected by the
students through the website.

c. Higher-order thinking: Students will need higher-order thinking to conduct the process of tracking the
migration of the butterflies. All of the resources that the students need are available on the website.
Students will be responsible for keeping track of the butterflies’ migration and tracking all the data.
The students will also need to form scientific hypotheses on when the butterflies will arrive and back it
up with data.

d. Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care about their product: The
students will be publishing all their work in the Journey North journal. This will include data,
hypotheses, documents, pictures and more. This can be viewed by other students and educators
around the world.
 Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☒ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Representation: This principal will be implemented into this lesson by providing not only Journey North’s
resources but also books and other online websites for the students to use for their data.
Action and Expression: The students will use this principal by not only responding to students via the Internet
but the students will also be communicating with other students in Mexico via snail mail.
Engagement: The students will be collaborating and communicating with their peers in their class but also
other students on the Journey North website, students in Mexico and possibly other educators.
Lesson idea implementation and Internet Safety Policies: I will inform the administrators of the project
before hand to get confirmation that I will be able to implement it. I will then send the parents letters stating
what the project is, what it entails their students doing, reassurance that students personal information will
not be given out and that privacy and safety will be monitored, and permission for their child to go through
with the project. During the project, I will make sure that I know whom the students are communicating with
and that they go by a pseudonym the entire time. If the students are to use video chat I will make sure the
students faces are not to be seen. All of these precautions will assist in keeping the students safe.

Reflective Practice: After designing this lesson, I am excited to try to implement this lesson into my classroom
one day. I think that students will be so excited and generally interested in this project because of it being so
hands on and in real time. The students are not just learning about butterflies but they are partaking in the
butterflies’ lives and their journey through migration. This is an exciting lesson to have planned because it
entails the students thinking on such high levels and also using high levels of technology. I was unsure at first
on how to have students collaborate and communicate with other outside of the classroom but this reassured
me that it could be done. And in a fun and authentic way!