Back to Basic and Applied Ecology: A False Dichotomy, by Gordon H. Orians

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to A Conservation Biologist's Toolbox, by Katherine Ralls

Students Track Spring's Journey North, by Elizabeth Donnelly

"The seasons, like great tides, ebb and flow across the continents. Spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about 15 miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide."

Edwin Way Teale, North With the Spring (1951)

In spring 1947, Edwin Way Teale, a naturalist and Pulitzer-Prize winning author, criss-crossed the United States on a 17,000 mile journey north with the season. This spring, thousands of students are preparing to track spring's journey across North America once again. This time, the continent will be crossed via the Internet. Through the Journey North program, students will track the travels of a dozen migratory species and signs of spring by sharing their own field observations with classrooms across the hemisphere.

Among the phenomena that will be tracked by these students is the migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) northward from Mexico. When the butterflies grand exodus from Mexico begins (usually near the spring equinox), the electronic network already will be on alert. Thousands of people will be prepared to report the first monarch butterfly they see. Live reports will be posted from March until June, when the butterflies will have traveled the full extent of their range.

Students report their sightings with enthusiasm. Many are taking notice of this spectacular migration for the first time.

"Today my friend and I were talking on our walkie-talkies. I noticed eight monarchs flying, so I told my friend. He wrote down everything and we sent it in!!!"

"We found fresh monarch wings on the playground--but no living butterfly. Does this count as a sighting?"

Last autumn, as part of the first annual "symbolic monarch butterfly migration," 40,000 students created paper butterflies which "migrated" through the mail to Mexico for the winter. Mexican students are now watching over them. Next March, when the living monarchs leave Mexico, the paper butterflies will return to the United States and Canada. Each butterfly carries a message between the students. This message from Thomas Flude of Cameron, Ontario says it best:

"Dear Friend,

"Please take care of this butterfly during our long, cold winter. Like real monarchs, it is delicate and fragile. We hope you accept these butterflies as a symbol of our friendship."

The American robin (Turdus migratorius) is another beacon of spring that students track across North America. Before the robin migration begins, students conduct a survey to determine where robins are found during the winter. (Never again will northern students simply say that robins go "down south.") While waiting for the robins' arrival in their communities, students measure backyard temperatures and test whether robins move north with the 36 degree isotherm. Classrooms track robins all the way to the edge of the arctic, where they usually arrive in May.

In addition to student-collected data, Journey North is able to track several migrations by satellite telemetry, thanks to scientists who share their data with the project. This spring, for example, Peter Nye of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation will follow the migrations of a half dozen eagles from New York to their nesting grounds in Canada. Students as young as 10 or 11 will produce daily weather forecasts and migration predictions for each eagle, using Internet-based weather maps. When the telemetry data arrive, students will review their predictions and determine what conclusions can be drawn about eagle migration and weather.

The opportunity to receive live coverage of an individual animal as it migrates helps students view migration as the survival story that it truly is. Armed with the knowledge of the high mortality rates facing migrants, students rejoice when an animal reaches its destination.

As the spring season sweeps across the hemisphere, students note how changes in temperature and daylight cause the food chain to revitalize. They gather, organize, and analyze their own data on familiar, local natural phenomena. Then they place their local observations in a global context. Students are able to experience how their small part of the world fits into large natural systems.

From his vantage point in Anchorage, Alaska, teacher Mike Sterling describes his experiences: "In my classroom, as we track the northward migration of spring, we are for the first time noticing that we are noticing.' When we read first-person stories about the advance of the robins, or the retreat of the ice across the mid-west, we have time to think about how we view our environment. We find ourselves analyzing and understanding on whole new levels. I can't keep my students out of my room at lunch, they are driving me crazy with questions, and there isn't a surface in my room that isn't covered with maps, data charts, and computer printouts. What they are learning is irreplaceable!"

Journey North is funded by the Annenberg Foundation/Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Project for Math and Science. Established in 1991 with a grant from the Annenberg Foundation to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Project uses media and communications to improve math and science education for the nation's 44 million school children. Journey North is supported as a model for math/science education reform over the Internet. Additional funding is provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Journey North begins every year on Groundhog Day (2 February) and lasts until June. Participation from SCB members is invited and welcome! Visit Journey North at http://www.learner.org/k12.

Elizabeth Donnelly
Program Director
Journey North
18150 Breezy Point Road
Wayzata, Minnesota 55391

With great pride and appreciation, the Journey North program received the Society for Conservation Biology's 1996 Distinguished Service Award for Education and Journalism. The SCB recognized Journey North for developing an innovative conservation education program that involves thousands of children in the study and appreciation of migratory species. In turn, we thank the dozens of conservation biologists who have so generously shared their time and expertise with students. This program would not be possible without their contributions.

Elizabeth Donnelly

Back to Basic and Applied Ecology: A False Dichotomy, by Gordon H. Orians

Up to Table of Contents

Ahead to A Conservation Biologist's Toolbox, by Katherine Ralls