Karen Oberhauser, Photo by Michelle Solensky

When Karen Oberhauser began her career at the University of Minnesota, she was a research scientist studying butterfly reproductive biology. But then one day she brought a dozen caterpillars to her daughter's kindergarten classroom. The caterpillars--and Oberhauser--were a hit. From there, the idea behind Monarchs in the Classroom, a comprehensive science education program, was born. Fourteen years later, Oberhauser, an assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, continues as director of Monarchs in the Classroom, maintains an active research lab, and serves on the graduate faculty in the Conservation Biology Program. It's less of a juggling act than it appears. "The boundaries are very blurry between my different interests," says Oberhauser.

In her research, Oberhauser studies not only monarch reproduction, but also monarch population dynamics. She is interested in the effects that disease, global climate change, pesticides, and agriculture can have on the distribution and abundance of immature monarch stages. Toward this end, in 1997 she developed a citizen volunteer program within Monarchs in the Classroom called the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP). Oberhauser and her students recruited the first few volunteers for the project through list-servs, newsletters, meetings, and word of mouth. The volunteers were trained to monitor milkweed patches in gardens and parks for the presence of monarch eggs and larvae, then report their results back to Oberhauser's group.

Recruitment

Photo by Margaret Righter

for the MLMP now uses a train-the-trainer network and takes place through nature centers and other outdoor environmental education facilities. The MLMP has grown to a large-scale citizen science project with nearly 1000 volunteers in 40 states and Canada. "As citizen science grows in popularity, it is becoming much easier to recruit people," says Oberhauser. What accounts for the success of the MLMP's volunteer-based effort? Oberhauser thinks the answer lies in the subject matter itself. "Monarchs are perfect for this kind of project because, one, people aren't afraid of them; two, they are widespread and relatively showy, which means that people recognize them; and, three, they have an incredibly exciting biology. The fact that they have to navigate thousands of miles to mountaintops in central Mexico lends an air of mystery to them."

Through the MLMP, Oberhauser has access to a quantity of data that she and her lab could never gather on their own. Analyses of data collected by the MLMP indicate that the past three years represent three of the four lowest years for overall population numbers. "While this downward trend could represent a purely chance phenomenon and can be partially explained by weather factors, it is a disturbing trend that is definitely cause for concern," she says.

The MLMP has not only functioned as a vehicle to provide access to data, but as a scientific education tool. After its inception, it soon became clear that the program worked very well when adults worked with children on the project. Oberhauser and her colleagues became interested in its educational value, including

Volunteers monitoring in the field. Photo by Laura Molenaar,

(but not limited to) use by teachers and students in the upper elementary through high school grades. With the MLMP, Oberhauser has involved the public in a scientific endeavor in a way that will enhance their knowledge of the scientific process in general. "It is so important that the public understand science, because public policy is driven by public interests. We can use this model organism [the monarch] to engage the public in scientific research in a way that helps them to understand and support science," says Oberhauser.

Oberhauser's approach to educating the public about science extends beyond using monarchs as the subject matter. Along with colleagues from the College of Education and Human Development, the Bell Museum, and the College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, she has developed an innovative program to improve K-12 science education. In a nutshell, University of Minnesota graduate students who are training to be professional scientists will work in K-12 classrooms for a year, experiencing a broad array of ways in which they can support K-12 education in their professional careers. These students will likely then encourage the next generation of graduate students to do likewise. 

This concept has caught the eye of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a federal funding agency that has made improving K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math education one of its key initiatives. The NSF has just awarded Oberhauser and her colleagues a three-year, $1.9 million grant to implement this program in four Twin Cities schools. "Many programs, including mine, have

Oberhauser (left) with a monitoring crew. Photo by Michelle Solensky.

supported similar smaller efforts in the past, and it's wonderful to have the recognition from NSF that this approach is valuable to the enterprise of science in the U.S. I'm excited about working with students from across several colleges, and also about the expertise brought to the project from co-principal investigators in the College of Education and Human Development and the Bell Museum," she says.

Graduate students are not the only beneficiaries of this new program. The research expertise they can provide will expose teachers and students in the selected classrooms to more inquiry-based science projects, which will increase teacher and student scientific literacy (and maybe provide the world with the next generation of scientists).

And it all started with a dozen caterpillars and some curious kindergartners.

Monarch butterfly project Web sites

• Monarch Larva Monitoring Project www.mlmp.org
• Monarchs in the Classroom www.monarchlab.org

Project team for the Graduate Fellows and Environmental Biology in K-12 Education NSF grant

• Karen Oberhauser, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
• Lesa Covington-Clarkson, College of Education and Human Development
• Scott Lanyon, Bell Museum
• Frances Lawrenz, College of Education and Human Development
• Susan Weller, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

Project Web site: www.gk12.umn.edu