Technology and Butterflies

I believe that the site Explore butterflies! at http://www.ansp.org/museum/butterflies/new_interactive/butterflies.html is an excellent educational website for students to learn about butterflies and reinforce the kindergarten core curriculum standard II, Objective 2 to observe and describe animals in the local environment. This site has four sections to explore including: test your butterfly smarts, build a butterfly habitat, field observation, and butterflies and climate change. The site provides information, provides immediate corrective feedback, rewards correct answers, and encourages improvement. One section I particularly liked was the “build a butterfly habitat.” Students get 2 minutes to create a meadow habitat and try to attract five species of butterflies. Students must choose between host plants, nectar and host plants, and landscaping and add or subtract items from the meadow. As choices are made, the numbers of butterflies increases or decreases depending on if it was a good or bad choice. Hints are given so the students can make better choices.

I would use this as an interactive learning activity that should be completed at home with a parent to reinforce what has been taught in class concerning butterflies. This site is simple to use, it provides useful feedback, and graphics are well done. The problem with the site is that it does not include a narrative or sound of any kind, thus, making it necessary for an experienced reader to assist non-reading children. This actually could work as an advantage as it requires parental participation which has been shown to improve children learning. I would encourage parents to explore the site with their child to reinforce their child’s knowledge about butterflies. Another problem with this site is that for people who do not agree with climate change this site could be disagreeable to them.