Butterflies Are Teachers

The Butterflies Are Teachers (BAT) program is an interactive, indoor and outdoor program that uses the life cycle of the butterfly to engage students in math, science, and ecology lessons.  The program is for elementary students and is taught by high school students.  By building butterfly gardens and raising butterflies with the students, teachers are able to enhance their basic curriculum while also introducing inner-city youth to the natural environment.

The Butterflies Are Teachers program has a number of important elements:

• Environmental education
• Enhanced learning in math, science, and ecology
• Teen leadership and mentoring
• After school activities for high school students
• Neighborhood beautification

Groundwork Bridgeport works with the Nature Club at Bridgeport’s Warren Harding High School to engage high school students in the BAT program.  High school students have the opportunity to volunteer in the program as mentors and instructors for the younger children.  The high school mentors both learn and help develop the math, science, and ecology lessons, which all focus on the life cycle of butterflies and the gardens in which butterflies live.  Lessons include topics such as the water cycle, healthy soil, the path of the sun, plant growth, and raising of the butterflies. 

Groundwork Bridgeport has engaged more than ten local elementary schools in the BAT program.  The culmination of the work done by the high school students occurs when they actually visit different elementary classrooms.  The high school students lead the younger classes in the lesson of the day.  After the students learn the exercise, everyone goes outside to repeat the lessons in the actual environment, such as finding the path of the sun across the school grounds.

The lessons in the BAT program utilize a method known as Just In Time Learning.  The young students are given the tools to solve a real life problem as soon as that problem is presented.  In the classroom, students may be taught to use a compass to find North, South, East, and West and that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.  Once outside, students are asked to find the path of the sun over the school grounds.  With Just In Time Learning, students are encouraged to develop problem solving skills by immediately solving the problem using the applicable skills from the classroom.

The first year an elementary school participates in the program, Groundwork Bridgeport works with the children and teachers to design and build a butterfly garden at the school.  The children are asked to design the garden themselves, which works to instill a sense of responsibility and pride in the young students. 

BAT garden at High Horizons Magnet School in the shape of a butterfly.

Benefits of the BAT Program:

The BAT program has a number of immediate and lasting impacts for the elementary students, the high schools students, and the local community.

Environmental Education
Most children in Bridgeport have very few opportunities to learn about nature and to experience the environment.  The BAT program allows students the opportunity to be outside and in direct contact with nature.  While working in the gardens students learn and see the affects people have on the environment, both positive and negative.  The Groundwork Bridgeport staff, along with the teachers in the BAT program, wants students in the program to become more aware of the environment and grow to be good stewards of our natural resources.

Neighborhood Beautification
Each butterfly garden enhances Groundwork Bridgeport’s mission to beautify and improve the environment in our local neighborhoods.  The gardens bloom for almost nine months each year and make local residents aware of the natural elements that can exist in their neighborhoods, even in an urban setting.

Empowering Students to Be Leaders
The individuals most impacted by the BAT program are perhaps the high school students who volunteer to be instructors.  The students are engaged in safe and healthy after school activities, which is a time when many at-risk behaviors take place among youth.  From experience, we have seen the students become more engaged in school and all of the participants who complete our program have also graduated high school.  As the students learn, develop, and teach the BAT lessons, they are able to improve their own math, science, and ecology skills enhanced by the opportunity for experiential learning.  The mentors often gain confidence as they are able to teach and become role models for the younger students.  Finally, because the program is a volunteer experience, the high school students gain an understanding of volunteer work and giving back to their community.

The BAT program is funded by:
The Barnes Foundation
The Near and Far Aid Association, Inc.
The Anne S. Richardson Foundation
The Tremaine Foundation