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Monarch hunters catch the science bug

By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
   CHESTERFIELD — Chesterfield Elementary students put the “field” back into “field trip” when they waded through knee-high grasses off Ward Avenue on Tuesday morning.
   The students searched for monarch butterfly larvae and caterpillars as they tromped through fields strewn with milkweed, the only food source for the monarch.
   The 61 students participated in what science teacher Mike Mazzoni referred to as a “day of scientific learning,” and encouraged the students to not get distracted by the other bugs and plants that were in the fields.
   The children were divided into four groups, each equipped with a small plastic take-out deli container, which had a moistened paper towel at the bottom, as well as a generous screened opening from which the caterpillars could get enough air once they were inside.
   Four teachers led the groups of students through the field where milkweed grew. The milkweed gets its name from the opaque ooze that comes out of the leaf when it is cut from the stem.
   Mr. Mazzoni advised students to “pick a spot and examine everything” they could about that one particular area.
   Almost immediately, students were calling out to each other, exclaiming “I got it, I found one!”
   Once the students located either an egg or caterpillar, they would call over the teacher who would take the leaf and the caterpillar and place it in the deli container for the student.
   When the students return to the elementary school, they will place the larvae and the caterpillars into a hanging habitat that will enable them to grow and have space to fly.
   Mr. Mazzoni said that students were able to see butterflies released last Friday, from larvae he had harvested shortly before school started in mid-August.
   It takes about 30 days for an egg to develop into a full-fledged butterfly.
   Elizabeth Lanahan, a teacher who was in charge of supervising one group, encouraged student Hannah Krupa to identify the shriveled-up white mass that a creature had left behind.
   ”You remember (when we) discussed what molting means?” she asked.
   When the caterpillar is ready to begin to fly, it will deposit a white skin upon the milkweed leaf. The skin, when not examined closely, can resembled the color and size of an egg.
   Katie Devito closely hunched over several plants around the same area while she asked the teachers if the little white speckles on the leaf could be identified as eggs.
   Some students happened to look down and spot a caterpillar hanging on a leaf, while other students had to kneel down and do some careful prodding around the plant to find a specimen.
   Student Richie Breece discussed his strategy of trying to instantly locate a good plant.
   ”We think that where there are holes in the leaves, there are caterpillars,” he said.
   Once found, students began comparing their finds, and competitive chatter was peppered with comments on how they had named their new finds buzzed around the field.
   After the two hours the students had spent looking for the specimens, Mr. Mazzoni said there were a total of 55 caterpillars that had been found and brought back.
   One of the teacher chaperones, Melissa Sakimura, said that bringing the students out into the field to search for eggs and larvae is something that definitely keeps the subject fresh for all of the students.
   ”It certainly gets them more excited for the subject verses just what they would get from reading about the process out of a textbook,” she said.