Problem-Solvers: Caterpillars…
Author: Tim Taylor l Suitable for: Early Years, Planning
The Theme
The Hungry Caterpillar – dealing ethically and humanely with ‘pests’
Printer friendly copy: doc
(From an original idea by Luke Abbott)
An example of the Garden Centre frame for older children: Pdf
Background
The Curriculum
Understanding: That all creatures need to be treated humanely even creatures that cause human beings problems. That we all have a responsibility to protect the environment.
Knowledge: The life-cycle of butterflies, the importance of leaves to… etc
Skills: Listening, problem-solving, communicating, evaluating, negotiating
Values: Appreciate that all life is important and that animals (even apparent ‘pests’) have an important role to play in the eco-system
Developing the Situation
Inquiry Questions
1. How can we protect livelihoods and human interests from destructive wildlife
2. How can this be done without damaging the natural environment
3. And in a humane way, without destroying living creatures
4. What is our responsibility to the planet, and other creatures including insects…
Situation
A small garden centre has been infested by a ‘plague’ of caterpillars. The caterpillars are attacking the plants and will destroy them all if they aren’t stopped. If this happens the garden centre will have to close and the people who work there will loose their jobs. The situation is further complicated because it appears that the caterpillars are coming from the place next door, which is a butterfly farm.
Designing the Expert Frame
Team of Experts
An expert team of problem solvers who have the equipment and expertise to deal with any problem, no matter how big or small.
Client(s)
1. The owner of a garden centre
2. The owner of a butterfly farm
Commission(s)
1. To remove the hungry caterpillars from the garden centre in a way that doesn’t arouse the interests or suspicions of the customers.
2. To do it in a way that neither harms the plants or the caterpillars.
2. To put the caterpillars back in the butterfly farm and help the owner to realise the caterpillars are a problem to the garden centre and that he/she has a responsibility to their neighbour.
Possible Steps in:
1. (Engaging): This beginning starts with the client. Ask the children to have a look at what’s going on here (there is an adult in role). You may need to mediate this a bit for the children, something like: “Mrs B. is going to be someone in a story. A person with a problem. Take a look and see what you notice.” The person in the story looks concerned; she turns something over and looks closely, her brow furrows. She picks something off of the thing she is looking at and carefully puts it in a box. She then repeats the process, again tutting, shaking her head and putting the things in a box. The children are asked just to say what they see, they may make guesses or speculate. That’s fine. “Should I ask the lady what she is doing? Excuse me, we notice you’re not very happy. What is the problem?” “I’m not happy. All of my plants are covered in them… I’m really upset. I don’t know what to do.” You can now mediate a conversation between the lady and the children, using the children’s questions to find out more. If the children are confident, they of course can ask the questions directly.
Through questioning the situation emerges. The lady is the owner of a small garden centre that has been overrun by caterpillars. The caterpillars are eating all the plants and she doesn’t know how to stop them. She won’t use pesticides because the garden centre is an organic producer and she is a firm believer in sustainable horticulture. She wants the caterpillars out of her garden centre but does not want them exterminated. The caterpillars have ‘migrated’ from a butterfly farm next door.
2. (Making/creating): Activity – drawing boxes for the caterpillars and ways of capturing them that involves not harming them but keeping them alive and comfortable.
3. (Evaluating & reflecting): During the drawing of the boxes and tools we evaluate them on their fitness for the purpose. Possibly writing up a list constructed together of the aspects and features they must contain (success criteria). After they are drawn they are then shown to the centre owner for her approval.
4. (Enactive): Working together, the team begin to move around the garden centre, looking for and collecting the caterpillars and putting them (drawings) into their ‘humane’ containers. To ‘check in’ on how well the job is going they could take a look at the owner as she walks around watering her plants etc (looking at her face for signs). For added tension you could have other adults-in-role as costumers, who unaware of the infestation. The team would have to work without attracting the customer’s curiosity.
After this point is becomes difficult to plan as so much depends on how the work develops. For possible next moves consult the Generic Tasks Grid. It seems likely the caterpillars will have to be contained, cared for, recorded, and transported to another location. It also seems likely the team will have to mediate between the owner of the garden centre and the butterfly farm. Possibly giving advice. Interesting questions are: Who owns the caterpillars? Who is responsible for them and the damage they do? Is it ‘right’ to keep animals locked up, even if they are ‘only’ insects?
November 24th, 2008 at 3:35 am
I find this quite interesting as I own a butterfly farm in Brooker, Florida; Shady Oak Butterfly Farm.
It is great to read this, knowing that it is designed to teach children how to solve problems and think them through. From what I can figure, this is from 2002. I can’t help but comment, just for fun!
There are a couple of problems with this senario:
1) If caterpillars from a butterfly farm escape, this is an impossible senario: “attacking the plants and will destroy them all if they aren’t stopped”. Butterfly caterpillars are very restricted in their diet. They cannot eat very many species of plants. If caterpillars were destroying many plants, they would not be from the farm. Only moth caterpillars eat a wide variety of plants, not butterfly caterpillars. The senario above is a literal impossibility, like a cow jumping over the moon. (Grinning, I am.)
2) Is it ‘right’ to keep animals locked up … ? This is a leading question that would cause most students to answer, ‘no’. If the students had the facts, they could answer this question by thinking it through; even though their answers may contradict each others. First, nature allows survival to adult only 2 out of 100 butterfly eggs laid. By ‘locking them up’ they are protected from predators, parasitiods, and disease. Butterfly farm survival rates run up to nearly 95%. A different leading question could be, ‘if someone knows he/she can save the life of an animal by locking it up with others of its same species with sufficient quantity of food and all other necessities of life as a juvenile, then to release it into nature as an adult, is it wrong not to do so?’ There are several ways to view this issue. Butterfly farmers also raise butterflies for butterfly exhibits which are used for education; school field trips included.
3) It would be interesting to read such a problem-solving challange that talks about an insect that eats carrion and dung. Would the same question be asked, “Is it ‘right’ to keep animals locked up, even if they are ‘only’ insects?’
I truly enjoyed reading this challange for students. I wish more of us had been taught to think through and solve problems by considering all sides of a situation. Mediation, financial responsibility, etc … this would be a fun problem-solver!
Oh – by the way – the animal above that I refer to that eats carrion and dung are butterflies. Adult male butterflies have disgusting diets. If you’d like to see photos of butterflies eating rotting deer, maggots, and snake as well as eating dog poop, please email me. I’ve taken many photos of butterflies doing just that.
Thanks so much for taking the time to humor me by reading this letter. ~Edith
http://www.butterfliesetc.com
November 26th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Thank you so much Edith for insightful comments. I think you highlight very succinctly some of the many challenges of using the mantle of the expert approach. In particular, how much prior expert knowledge does a teacher need to have on a particular subject before they start? And, how accurate does the scenario have to be in relation to the ‘real’ world?
This frame was originally designed and used with children in their first year of school (the Reception year in the UK). The idea came from a book popular with early readers, ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’, and was intended as a starter for young children new to the idea of being a team of experts.
Because it was based on a work of fiction it might be said that the escaping caterpillars don’t need to behave in the same way as real caterpillars only in a similar way to the caterpillar in the story.
However, I’m not sure this position holds, since your real-world expertise (which the writers of this frame, including myself don’t have) transcends the need for fictional caterpillars -escaping butterflies might do the same job, better. Although, it sounds as though moth caterpillars might be better still. Nevertheless, switching from caterpillars to butterflies would require quite a radical re-write.
One compromise solution could be to pose the question, “Do caterpillars in the real world behave in the same way as the ones in our story?” Which could open up the possibility of two interesting inquiries: one, into the lives of real caterpillars and, one, into why animals in stories often behave differently to their real world counterparts.
I think your second point, highlights some sloppy thinking on my part. “Is it ‘right’ to keep animals locked up …?” is, as you say, a leading question and, again as you point out, quite meaningless in the context of caterpillars. I suppose there is an argument for saying it is opening up the possibility of extending the inquiry to include other animal life-forms and, possibly, whether insects feel pain. But, these arguments are tenuous, at best.
I think I will leave the frame as it is and, because of your valuable insight, leave teachers to make informed decisions for themselves as to how to use it.
Thank you once again especially for your kind and encouraging words.
Tim