The third AZEdNews classroom grant goes to Leah Dockstader for a Monarch butterfly migration station at Cottonwood Elementary School in Colorado City Unified School District.

UPDATE: Grants awarded EACH week in May!

Dockstader is a Title I teacher for Exceptional Student Services at the school that serves pre-schoolers through fifth-graders.

Science is a critical component of elementary education and one of the most engaging, Dockstader said.

“Creating a Monarch migration station would encourage students to explore the natural world around them. Students will use hands-on experiences to learn about life cycles of plants and insects,” Dockstader said.

Click here to apply now for the AZEdNews classroom grant!

About 120 pre-school through second-grade students will participate in the Monarch migration station, which will run for three months in the spring and repeat annually, Dockstader said.

Participating in a real-life, hands-on project increases students’ interest and engagement in their learning, Dockstader said.

Dockstader says she hopes that through this project “students will be more interested in reading and writing about science topics and their overall scores will improve.”

“One of our core values is citizenship. We want to contribute to and build our community,” Dockstader said.

“We can do that by cultivating caring individuals who can change the world,” Dockstader said.

“Learning about butterfly migration and providing food for them is one way to do that,” Dockstader said.