Flight of the Painted Ladies

Understanding the life cycle of animals is an important part of a student’s science experience. Knowing how animals are born, live, and die can give students a firsthand perspective of the 'cycle of life' that affects everything in nature. What do you know about the life cycle of different animals? Do all animals follow the same cycle? Where have you seen the life cycle of an animal in your own environment?

In this project, the class witnesses and documents the 14-day life cycle of the painted lady butterfly. The teacher first arranges to receive a butterfly culture from the Insect Lore website. Two tripods are set up near the culture to hold a digital camera and a digital camcorder. Students use a digital camera to take photos of the metamorphosis and a digital camcorder to shoot video footage. They create an iPhoto photo book to document and journal their observations. At the end of the project, they use iMovie to produce a narrated movie to give a time-lapse perspective of the event. Students post images, journal entries, and QuickTime movies on a classroom .Mac account web page so others can share their experience.

After completing this project, students will be able to:

• Describe the life cycle of the painted lady butterfly.
• Make associations between the painted lady and the life cycles of other animals.

After completing this project, students will be able to:

• Use a digital camera to take photos.
• Use iPhoto to import and organize photos, and create a photo book with text.
• Use a digital camcorder to capture video.
• Use iMovie to create a narrated movie.
• Use the classroom .Mac account to post pictures and movies to a website.

• Students can assess each other’s photo book and iMovie project by applying a teacher-created rubric.
• PDFs of the photo books and copies of the student movies can be added to students’ electronic portfolios.

Internet