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Teaching
Suggestions
and Discussion Questions
 |
Teaching
Suggestions
Have students imagine themselves as scientists. Challenge them to
write a report to summarize what the data on the pie charts show.
After discussion, have them design a conservation plan based on what
they know about the importance of 12 sanctuaries. Ask:
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Why is the information in these pie charts important to scientists who are working to protect monarch habitat?
-
Why is it important to have more than one year of information about the number of monarchs in each sanctuary?
- What mistakes might scientists make if they had information from only one winter?
- Which sanctuary do you think is the most important to protect?
- Which sanctuaries are the three most important?
Discussion
Questions
Help students discover which of these questions they
can answer by looking at these charts:
- Are the monarch butterflies spread evenly among all of the 12 sanctuaries?
- Do the monarchs seem to prefer some sanctuaries over others? Are they the same sanctuaries each year?
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Which three sanctuaries did most monarchs select this year (2009) and last year (2008)?
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Which sanctuary changed the most in use between last year and this year?
- Why do you suppose monarchs select one colony over another? What factors might be involved?
- Do monarchs seem to prefer certain sanctuaries every year? If so, which ones?
- Which do monarchs seem to prefer the least?
- What might happen next year? Predict how the chart will look--and plan to come back to see!
