Here are the Spring & Summer 2019 Monarch Service Project groups
Monarch Butterfly Way Station and Wildflower Restoration Habitat Planning and Design
The purpose of this project was to plan and design a 100 sq. ft monarch way station and a one acre wildflower restoration habitat. Team members needed to find material suppliers, figure the cost, create diagrams for these proposed sites, plan out plant material propagation, and plan site management. The goals of the planned sites overall was to increase the propagation of wildflowers in the College Station area, to create monarch way stations, to provide natural and toxin-free pollinator habitats, and to involve the community in habitat care and education.
Forest Ridge Elementary 1st grade Monarch and Milkweed Education
This group’s project was to educate and engage the Forest Ridge Elementary 1st grade class about the monarch butterfly. Including: its conservation, preservation, migration, and the importance of milkweed in the butterfly’s lifecycle. The group led hands-on learning activities in the classroom to cover all the subject matter. They also led the students in preparing a milkweed planting on their school grounds.
Assisting in the Texas A&M University Gardens
This group’s project was to assist with the maintenance of the Texas A&M University Gardens, allowing the desired wildflower plants to flourish in the Gardens, and the overall success of the Gardens in the future. They all worked hard alongside the A&M gardening staff to achieve these goals. The group members also had the opportunity to learn about the Gardens as whole, about the specimens exhibited there, and about the particular challenges of the Gardens’ site.
Aggieland Safari Junior Zookeeper Program
This group’s project was to help develop the Aggieland Safari Junior Zookeeper program. With a goal of making it a fun and educational zookeeper program for children. The group needed to figure out what the price of this program should be per junior zookeeper, when it should be held, the age group the program should target, the specific educational activities of these programs, as well as ways to keep these activities fun and engaging.
Planting Butterfly Gardens in the Community
The goal of this group’s project was to assist in maintaining and planting pollinator gardens in the community to conserve monarch butterfly habitats. The group worked hard as a team to achieve these goals. Several sites were worked on in the community including a cemetery, parks, and walking trails.
Here are the Spring 2019 Monarch Service Project groups
MILKWEED PROJECT:
Milkweed and Pollinator Testing and Production
Mission Statement/Overview of Project: Test and produce a variety of native milkweed and pollinator species in a variety of habitats including open fields, gardens, roadsides, and greenhouses.
- Community group/members that the project team members will be working with and/or delivering to: Texas Transportation Institute Staff
- Background check required: No
- Community members under the age of 18: No
- Specific physical location of the project: Agronomy Rd, on campus.
- Dates and Times the project will occur: Flexible
Dress code, policies, or procedures, that the project team should be aware of in advance: Suitable outdoor work clothes, closed toe shoes.
There are 4 groups for this specific project!
Milkweed is very important for monarch butterflies as they plant their eggs on the plant. This also is a food source to the caterpillars once they hatch from their egg. Milkweed plants are decreasing drastically in West Texas which means the monarch butterfly population could decrease along with it if they do not create a tolerance towards different plants.
PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN GROUP:
The initial goal of the project was to create and develop a variety of publicity campaign strategies and advertisements. In order to increase local awareness throughout the community of Brazos Valley. They accomplished this by creating multiple print campaigns, such as posters, flyers, and brochures. In addition to several sound campaigns, such as TV and radio announcements. The group also used multiple social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) to increase the amount of people they are reaching out to and informing. The group also had a point of contact for this project named Jonathan Sosebee. He was from the City of Navasota Community Development Department who they communicated with to help them accomplish what they set out in their initial goal.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
The goal of this project is to develop/update a new website (THIS website!). MonarchButterfly.tamu.edu is to contain all of the relevant information related to the Monarch Butterfly Service Learning projects to include community partners, service sites, current and past project, informational sections and links.
As a team, we had several goals for our website. The goals are to give current ENTO 322 students a tangible place to reflect on the importance of the work they have done. The medium goals of this project are to improve upon the existing website, primarily by updating the information, and making it more accessible and user friendly! The final goal of the project is to promote the use of Monarch Service Projects as a resource for the community. Our hope is that this website will also promote the development of more monarch butterfly gardens in the Brazos Valley.
MONARCH SERVICE PROJECTS IN THE NEWS
The Brazos Valley Insite released an article and video about the Monarch service projects in Bryan/ College Station. To learn more about the role of the service projects, please see the link below.
https://www.insitebrazosvalley.com/business/farm-ranch/monarch-butterflies-cities-team-up-to-protect-monarchs/