Youth Eco Summit

By Lauren Smith December 6, 2013
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Emerging butterflies and burgeoning student interest collided when AG went to visit.

The education team took a break from preparing all the new books for next year and visited the Youth Eco Summit at Homebush.

Joining 6,600 students and 54 other organisations, we had loads and loads of fun. We decided to focus on butterflies – reflecting on the science that shows that global warming is accelerating the development period for the common brown butterfly and other species in Australia, so they’re spending less time in their chrysalises.

We took along an orange Lacewing butterfly chrysalis, hoping that during the two days it would emerge. We spent the two days talking to students about butterflies and global warming, and making butterfly kites.

At about midday on the second day, our butterfly started to emerge from her chrysalis. We’re not actually certain what gender the butterfly was, but we decided to think of her as a girl. We quickly named her Dracula, and we all watched with amazement as she extricated herself from her chrysalis and started preparing for flight.

It took a few hours for her wings to become sturdy enough for flight, and it was after we’d packed up that she finally seemed ready to fly for the first time. After one small false start, she took the air like she’d been doing it her whole life and disappeared into the distance.

We love doing event like these, to spend time with students and teachers who are curious, passionate and excited about the world around them.