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Brassica & Butterfly Life Cycles
What happens during a typical plant life cycle? What about the life cycle
of a familiar insect, like a butterfly? This activity explores the
life cycles of Fast Plants, or Brassica rapa, and Pieris rapae,
the cabbage white butterfly.
Materials Needed
Instructions
To prepare
- Order your Fast Plants seeds and
butterfly eggs, and buy seeds for the Brassica Nursery from
a local garden shop (radish, turnip, and/or mustard seeds).
NOTE: You’ll need to plant
the seeds about five days before the butterfly eggs arrive,
so time their arrival
accordingly.
- Before the Fast Plant seeds arrive, build the Bottle
Growing System, Light House, Brassica Nursery, and Brassica Barn.
- When they arrive, plant Fast Plant seeds in the Bottle Growing
System and place in the Light House.
- On the same day or a few
days earlier, plant the seed mix in the Brassica Nursery
and place it in the Light House.
When butterfly eggs arrive
- Follow instructions
for the Brassica Nursery for hatching.
- Refer to the Side-by-Side
Rearing and Care Calendar (PDF) for care instructions during
the study period.
During study period
Both life cycles will
take about 30–40 days to complete. During
this time, make observations every 2–3 days. Use your "Brassica & Butterfly"
Data Sheets (PDF) to record what you observe and answer questions.
Visit www.fastplants.org for
in-depth information on the Brassica and
butterfly.
Activity Questions
Brassica questions
- How does a seed germinate?
- What environmental conditions do seeds need
for germination?
- Where do new plant parts (roots, stems,
leaves, flowers, and pods) develop?
- How do plants get the carbohydrates
(sugar) they need for energy to grow?
- What is the purpose of each
structure (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and pods)?
- Why are insects
attracted to the flowers?
- Do all seeds on a plant have the same
mother? The same father? Explain.
- Are the seeds alive? Justify your
answer.
Butterfly questions
- How do the larvae hatch from the eggs?
- What clues indicate that larvae
are present, even if you can’t
locate them?
- What do the larvae eat?
- Where would you expect to find larvae?
- What do the larvae expel?
- Each larva has an exoskeleton. What is the
function of the exoskeleton?
- How does the
larvae grow larger? What happens to the exoskeleton?
- How do the
larvae become butterflies?
- What indicates that a larva is ready
to form a chrysalis?
- What indicates
that a butterfly is ready to emerge from a chrysalis?
- Where do female
butterflies tend to lay their eggs? Why?
- What is the difference
between the food for the larvae and the
butterflies?
- What food needs to be present
for another generation of
butterflies to
survive?
Brassica & Butterfly
questions
- How does the Brassica depend on the butterfly?
- How does the butterfly depend
on the Brassica?
SHARE YOUR RESULTS: Brassica & Butterfly
Life Cycles
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Life Cycles
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