Monarchs in Space..

[Carlsbad]

Sorry so late on this...



WANTED: Up to 20 schools (in the U.S., east of the Rocky Mountains)
to follow the development of monarchs on the International Space
Station.

We need to have you commit to this program by 5PM on Friday afternoon
(November 6th) - sorry for the short notice! :-)

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Background
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The next Space Shuttle launch is scheduled for November 16th.
Atlantis will carry three 4th instar monarch caterpillars to the
International Space Station (ISS) in a small rearing chamber. This
chamber will be placed in an incubator aboard the ISS where the
developing monarchs will be monitored. Still and video cameras will
continually capture images, which will be made available online.

We have prepared a text that outlines normal development of monarchs
from the fourth instar until emergence as adults. This detailed text
is written for adults and contains an extensive glossary. It is
intended to provide the information teachers need to answer student
questions and as a guide to the five major challenges monarchs face
in the nearly weightless environment of the International Space
Station.

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Participation
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If you would like your school or classroom to participate, please
contact us at monarch@ku.edu before 5PM this Friday (November 6th).

Monarch Watch will send a special monarch larva kit to participating
schools. The monarch kit costs $17.95 and the overnight shipping will
be an additional $26 for a total of $43.95. BioServe Space
Technologies will send participating classrooms a kit that includes a
rearing chamber (similar to the one going into space) with
instructions.

The kit consists of six 3rd instar larvae on artificial diet and
additional cups of diet. Three larvae will be loaded into the rearing
chamber. One of the cups with diet will be used to fill the feeding
trays in the chamber you will receive from BioServe. The other cups
of diet can be used to feed the remaining larvae until they are ready
to add to the finishing cups. Additional instructions will be
provided regarding these points.

If you participate in this program your students will be able to
follow the shuttle mission to the space station and the development
of the monarchs in space for at least two weeks.

The background materials, additional instructions, and relevant links
will be available at www.monarchwatch.org

If you have any questions, please let us know!

Jim
--
Jim Lovett
Monarch Watch
http://monarchwatch.org