The purpose of a Monarch butterfly Waystation is for Monarchs, a migratory butterfly, to have places to stop and feed on their annual migration path.  Natural Monarch “Waystations” are disappearing, so many groups and organizations such as our class are building Waystations to support the Monarch migration.

Intermediate East students decided to build a Monarch Butterfly Waystation after seeing one in the Monroe County Extension Office garden.  We corresponded with Jennie Stanger, our County Consumer Horticulture Educator.  Jenny met with a group of students and pointed us in the direction of Monarchwatch.com as well as a local monarch butterfly farmer, Mary Bird (www.birdsbutterflies.com).  We contacted her and went to her farm in Temperance.  She gave us some of the native plants we were going to need to build the Waystation. 

For our project the class divided into four teams:

1.  Nutrition of a Monarch
This group researched the different plants that Monarch Butterflies eat and then determined which were native to Michigan.  They also drew posters of the different types of plants for our Waystation.  They then made calls to local greenhouses to find out costs and availability of the plants and organized a bake sale to pay for them.

2.   Life Cycle of a Monarch
This group researched and drew posters of the different stages of a Monarch’s lifecycle.

3.   Education
This group made the brochures that we placed in a covered box at the Waystation.  The students used money from the bake sale to purchase a real estate box, went to the local hardware store to purchase it, and decorated it by painting a metal Monarch Butterfly on it.  The idea behind this is that other people will see it and read the brochure, and create more Waystations. 

4.  Building the Waystation
This group drew up plans for the garden bed and physically built the bed out of landscaping logs, dug up the soil, spread manure from a local farmer/parent, and planted the plants that the Nutrition Group procured. 

Each group reported on their part of the project before an audience of parents and the completed Monarch Waystation.  The posters were left in the Observation House behind the Waystation, along with a pair of binoculars.  A booklet was made of all the reports and diagrams.  The education group filled out an application to have our Waystation certified and, this summer we received our official certification, which hangs in a place of honor in the classroom.