The Journey North website, see the link at the right, is an incredible resource of science and social studies related activities. One of my favorite projects was the Symbolic Migration of the monarch butterflies. My classes participated in this activity for many years when I was teaching. In the fall students make a paper butterfly and write a brief message on the back including their name, school and address. These paper butterflies are then sent to an address in Minnesota where butterflies from all over the country are collect and forwarded to the monarch butterfly preserve in central Mexico. This happens in the fall. In the spring the senders receive butterflies from all over the country. The Journey North website provides a way to tell the senders where their butterflies went on their 'return migration' from Mexico. All throughout the year, Journey North updates the website with monarch migration news. It is a great project and my students really enjoyed sending the butterflies in the fall and receiving the packet in the spring!
Another project that we did the last two years that I taught was the Mystery Class project. This was a phenomenal integration of math, science, social studies and culture. It begins in late January and runs through early May. Ten mystery classes are identified throughout the world and sunrise and sunset data for each location are provided each week. Students subtract to figure out the photoperiod of each site and graph the data to see if the daylight is increasing or decreasing to know whether the mystery class is in the northern or southern hemisphere. On the equinox in March, the sunrise is posted for the the prime meridian in Greenwich and the 10 mystery classes. Using this data the students figure out if the mystery classes are east or west of the prime meridian. Then over the next few weeks, cultural clues are given for each mystery class. Students used Google Search to narrow down the location of their mystery class. At the end of April we sent our answers for the locations of the 10 mystery classes to Journey North and waited anxiously to see if we were correct.
This year the students in my class correctly identified all 10 mystery classes! It is absolutely the best interdisciplinary project I have every used and highly recommend it to teachers everywhere. My 2nd grade class was one of only a handful of classes participating on the primary level, but classes from elementary through high school participated across the country. If I were still teaching, I would make sure we did it every year!
These are only two of the many activities and resources on the Journey North site. It is really worth investigating.
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