Construction of Butterfly Habitats on Campuses—an Interview with Po-Chang, Lin

土城國小 張凱復老師

Ways and Attitudes before the Construction of Butterfly Habitats
   First of all, the most important element is PEOPLE. Those who are willing to and interested in long-term habitats management are critical. Schools should integrate and make the best of these human resources.
   Before the construction, the school administration should examine their status quo, advantages, resources and possible ways of habitats construction. The target should be aimed at the abundance of biological varieties and facilitation of students’ learning. When plants are grown accordingly, insects will come. After the construction, there must be people who are capable of taking care of the plants. With people of relative vegetation knowledge, the habitat can develop continuously.

 How to Build Habitats for Butterflies in Metropolitan Schools?
   Due to the environment constraints, butterflies in metropolitan schools are comparatively fewer. With thoroughly- designed environment construction, the situation will be better. First, we should examine the plants on campuses. There may be little need for plants purchasing because there havealready been many of them. Vegetation for butterfly habitats can easily be found on campuses. Getting a clear picture of the resources and advantages at hand will yield twice the result with half the effort.
    The next step, we would suggest schools plant the original vegetation such as host and nectar source plants and those which other butterflies can live on.
Butterflies need suitable habitats to stay. Provided that habitats in schools are with enough hiding places,vegetation and good management, there will be butterflies everywhere in the near futureeven if in metropolitan schools.

Suggestions of Edible landscaping for Food and Agriculture Education in New Taipei City
    Edible landscaping is the plantation and observation of edible vegetation. It makes people cherish food by understanding thefood travelling distancefrom earth to mouth.
Building a vegetable garden can be one of the directions. It can attract butterflies. We can see butterflies flying around the garden very often. Artogeiarapaecrucivora(Imported cabbage butterflies)and Pieriscanidia( Taiwan cabbage butterflies) are the most common to see in the  gardens.Pieriscanidialay its eggs on the leaves of vegetables for the larvae to live on. On the other hand, students can observe the life of butterflies more closely.Houseplants are easy to move, take care and teachwith. They can be proper solution for metropolitan schools. In addition to observation, they can attract animals.

What is the next act after a grand debut? If there are no people in charge of the maintaining, the curtain will fall in a blink. The prerequisite knowledge is not the issue, but the management will be. In short, the key roles are the teachers, people. This is more important than the construction of environmental habitats.

Having fun in Mother Nature, Preparation in Advance
   The most important thing is SAFETY. Setting the travelling plan suitable for children and adults can make your journey a more leisurable one. In addition, well-preparation in advance is critical.
   The population of butterflies starts to thrive in Aprils which are also time for Mt.Yang-Ming butterfly season. It is the best time to see butterflies in Taipei Basin. Students have to be very attentive to find a butterfly. Meanwhile, they can observe many other insects. Identifying the names of insects may not be crucial. The importance lies in the observation, experiencing and exploration.  It is critical to cultivate children the interest of exploring. Cramming knowledge does not always work. Then why not teach them to check the handbook and identify their names by themselves?

   As teachers, we sometimes worry about the influence of weather. However, raining or bad weather cannot entirely hinder people from observing insects. We can learn some under different circumstances. If the students want to find larva, try to stir a little bit around the twigs and observe with magnifiers.

Examples of Butterfly Habitats Construction by Teachers and Students
Series of butterfly courses are good starts for the environmental education. We can develop workshops and related courses to enrich teachers’ professional knowledge which can also facilitate butterfly habitats construction. Here are some examples.

Volunteer workers of Wen-Hua Elementary School in Tam-Sui Dist., New Taipei City have dedicated to this ecological observation courses. Shin-Shing Elementary School has been focusing on ecological education. Fu-ShingElementary School, surrounded by hills and mountains is a school of abundant natural and human resources. We are looking forward to more schools participating in the education contexts.