FORT SMITH — Every fall, Immaculate Conception School students practice their Southern hospitality, welcoming weary travelers on a 1,000- to 3,000-mile journey to stop at their refreshing, peaceful habitat on the corner of 14th and South B streets.
The garden is full of fresh vegetables — tomatoes and bell peppers. A pond provides a home to frogs and tadpoles that had been brought there from all over Fort Smith. A pumpkin patch is a colorful landmark for the weary travelers — monarch butterflies making their annual flight to the forests high in the mountains of Mexico.
But it’s the well-stocked supply of milkweed that makes Immaculate Conception’s habitat a “must-visit” on the Monarch butterflies’ route.
“We started our habitat with funds from a City of Fort Smith mini-grant in 2002,” sixth-grade teacher Ann Hill said “A teacher in one of the Jacksonville schools advised me to plant milkweed and told me about the monarch tagging program.”
Monarchs eat milkweed leaves as caterpillars, and milkweed flowers when they are butterflies, but the staff of life for monarchs is poisonous to other species. Monarchs’ bright coloring and markings warn other animals to stay away or risk death by poison.
The plentiful milkweed in the habitat has allowed the students at Immaculate Conception to find numerous butterflies, caterpillars and even one tiny egg. The egg was so tiny that the students needed a magnifying glass to see it. Unsure as to whether it was an egg or not, they brought it into the classroom to observe it. After a few days it turned black, and one afternoon the sixth graders saw a tiny caterpillar emerge.
“When I found the monarch egg, I thought it was part of the milkweed,” sixth grader Field Watts said. “Then I realized it might be a monarch egg so we were able to watch him become a really fat caterpillar.”
They nurtured the caterpillar with milkweed leaves and water and watched it climb to the top of his cage and gradually form a beautiful waxy green and gold chrysalis. During this stage the chrysalis required no food or water. Third-grader Cade Johnson said, “I was shocked how fast the caterpillar can change through metamorphosis.”
“It has been fantastic to see something so small turn into something so beautiful,” sixth grader Ashley Taylor added.
When a monarch butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, the students tag it before releasing it into the wild. Every Dec. 1, they send information about all the butterflies that they have tagged to MonarchWatch.com, a tracking service. When tagged monarchs are found in Mexico and other places along the travel route, schools will let Monarch Watch know, and Immaculate Conception students can see where their butterflies have traveled.
“Sometimes we find tagged butterflies from cities and towns to our north, and sometimes we have recaptured our own tagged butterflies,” Hill said.
MonarchWatch.com has maps showing the travel routes of monarchs over the past 40 years. The species is fascinating because its 1,000- to 3,000-mile annual trip is matched only by whales and birds. They often gain weight during their arduous journey, and scientists have speculated they have found a way to glide on fast moving air currents traveling south.
Even though Monarchs only have an eight- to nine-month lifespan, they seem to visit the same areas, and even the same trees, on each annual journey. Scientists have tried to ascertain what kind of clues monarchs might have left for their future generations to follow.
“Every grade level studies life cycles,” said Hill, who teaches science to second, fifth and sixth graders. “The Monarch Tagging Project helps all the students follow the life cycle of one species and contribute to the body of scientific knowledge through Monarch Watch.com.”
After receiving a second grant from Farmers Insurance in 2006, Immaculate Conception School added a vegetable garden to the habitat. Students plant, harvest, cook and eat their own vegetables and pumpkins.
Between the hopping frogs, the blooming plants and the flying monarchs, there’s always a lot of life to study in the habitat.
But even when science class isn’t in session, the habitat is a peaceful, beautiful location for other classes or quiet reflection. There are two statues — one of St. Francis of Assisi, and one of St. Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners. Several families have planted trees in memory of deceased loved ones. A flagpole in the center of the habitat was recently donated in memory of Donald Cunningham, a former student who died last year in a drowning accident.
