Silver Award Project

Curiosity Leads to Saving Monarch Butterflies Through Silver Award Project

Girl Scouts Emalyne and Pearl have been best friends since they were each 4 years old. As their friendship has blossomed over the years, so has their love for each other and monarch butterflies. The girls first noticed the butterflies fluttering around Pearl’s front yard and became mesmerized by their lifecycle and beauty. When they learned about the declining monarch population, the girls decided it was time to educate the community.

“When her dad brought the butterflies to our attention, we felt a sentimental tie with them,” Emalyne said. “We became obsessed with watching them grow from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly and felt obligated to save them.”

Last fall, the girls started working on a Silver Award project focused on helping to preserve the monarch. They created a presentation for young children at Ella Baker Montessori in Houston and provided them with some fun tools to help save the monarchs. The girls earned a Girl Scout Silver Award in May for the project.

The Silver Award is the highest award that Cadettes can earn. Girls must spend up to 50 hours on their projects. Girls use this time to identify an issue they care about in their community or beyond, plan and implement their project, and then reflect on what they have accomplished.

Pearl and Emalyne have become monarch experts through the research process, learning some new facts about the orange and black butterfly, like they eat 2,000 times their weight in milkweed and eat with their feet. “I didn’t even know they could taste at all,” said Pearl, who noted that milkweed is the only food the butterflies can eat to stay healthy.

The girls, now Girl Scout Seniors, said the monarch population is declining because of pesticides used in farming to kill weeds. Milkweed plants look like weeds, so they are destroyed, creating a decline in the monarch’s food source, they said. That’s why the girls also created a parent flyer with information about the plant and where they can buy it. They wanted to encourage parents and their children to plant milkweed in their own yards.

As part of their presentation to a science class of first through third graders, the girls showed pictures collected from their research and ones they took of the butterfly garden at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They also shared information about the monarch’s lifecycle and habits and their personal experience with the butterflies. The students received the parent flyer, which summarized the presentation.

The girls said they spent much of their time creating the PowerPoint presentation. They had to be sure they used proper resources and websites and interviewed the right people. The girls talked to a butterfly specialist at the museum and a horticulturist at a local nursery. In addition to the presentation, the girls made activity baskets, which they delivered to nine pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes at the Montessori school. The baskets included a National Geographic informational booklet, the parent flyer, butterfly lacing, and lifecycle flashcards, which they made and laminated. The girls had to raise money to buy the baskets and the other materials. They did chores for their families, including deep cleaning Pearl’s mom’s car and Emalyne’s home. Their arduous work earned enough to spend $283 on supplies and materials. All the work was well worth the outcome. The presentation was a hit with the children. They were fully engaged and asked questions about the monarch butterflies, the girls said. “We really wanted to raise awareness. Watching the butterflies made us want to learn more, and we wanted other kids to feel the same spark of curiosity,” Pearl said. “If they decide to help save the monarchs, that would be awesome! “