Mapping Monarchs: Connecting Students through Poetry and Conservation

Old Trail School, in partnership with the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, is excited to share the launch of Mapping Monarchs. Spearheaded by Intermediate School Science Teacher Lynn Gregor, Mapping Monarchs is an online tool that connects students worldwide to learn about monarch butterflies and conservation, while expressing their creativity through poetry.

The project was inspired by an exchange between OTS students and their peers in Mexico via the Journey North community science program. It aims to deepen students' understanding of this remarkable species and its migratory patterns.

Thanks to generous support from the GAR Foundation, Old Trail School and the Wick Poetry Center—directed by David Hassler—have collaborated to develop a website for the project.The site gives students access to three different digital writing tools, enabling them to creatively explore their knowledge of monarch butterflies. Students can share their finished poems on an interactive map, depicting the monarch's migration. 

OTS students celebrated the site's launch aboard the Traveling Stanzas Poetry Makerspace, a mobile, interactive exhibit and part of the Wick Poetry Center's Community Classroom. Student poems can be found on the Mapping Monarchs site, which is open for anyone to contribute to.