CEDAR RAPIDS — A tiny gray bump sat on the surface of a leaf in Prairie High School senior Ali Clark’s hands.
“I think I found a monarch egg,” she said to Laurie Azeltine, her teacher.
“It’s odd for it to not be on the underside,” Azeltine said, examining the leaf. “Let’s get a closer look at it in the dissecting scope.”
As the 18-year old student and her teacher went over to confirm the presence of the egg, other students fed their caterpillars Friday in the school’s horticulture class.
Azeltine started the class eight years ago to provide a more interactive way for teens to learn about life sciences.
“With the greenhouse you can have hands-on activity,” Azeltine said. “The students take ownership of the plants.”
The students in Azeltine’s class split their time between classroom learning and activity in the school’s greenhouse and around campus. Late summer temperatures make the greenhouse uncomfortably hot at times, so Azeltine has her students working on a different project for now: Raising monarch butterflies.
The students started at the beginning of the school year with caterpillar eggs, such as the one Clark found. Clark, 18, and her lab partner, Maria Denliger, 17, grew very attached to their caterpillar as they nurtured it from its start as a mere speck.
“It’s like our child,” Clark said. “We talk about him all the time.”
When the caterpillars turn into butterflies, the students will tag and release them into the wild.
After the butterfly project is completed, Azeltine plans to have the students plant and grow herbs, such as parsley and basil, to learn how they can spice up a bland dish while keeping it healthy.
Denliger said the herb garden project was one of the reasons she signed up for the class.
“I like that it’s outdoors and that it teaches us stuff we actually can use,” she said.
The class does have a unique set of challenges. The school’s greenhouse is smaller than Azeltine would like, and the timing of semester breaks doesn’t always sync with plant life cycles.
“There’s no one at the school to take care of plants that you start in the summer,” Azeltine said. “Anything we planted now would be dead by the time winter comes along.”
Despite these challenges, Azeltine feels the course helps get teenagers personally invested in science.
“Having the students take ownership really makes science more interesting to the student who really doesn’t readily get interested in science,” she said.
