Fifteen-year-old Shreya Sajan gestures at the plants in the raised beds, identifying them for the visitors on her tour.
“Blue lupine - that’s good for the Karner blue butterfly,” she remarks, while walking through the Farnsworth Middle School Butterfly Station in Guilderland, an Albany suburb. “Any plant with flowers is good for butterflies.”
The high school sophomore is a seasoned volunteer at the FMS Butterfly Station, now in its 23rd year. For the past three summers, she has helped transform the school courtyard and nearby rooms into a butterfly house and native plant garden that’s free and open to the public.
Though run by students, the FMS Butterfly Station is a well-organized, high-quality operation that immerses visitors in the colorful world of butterflies while also giving youth an enriching educational experience.
Underpinning the annual summer project is a strong sense of purpose.
“Conservation is the main mission of the work we’re doing,” said Molly Fanning, an English teacher at Farnsworth Middle School who coordinates the Butterfly Station. “It’s all facets of education - educating students, educating staff, educating the community.”
Earlier this summer, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature placed the monarch butterfly on the endangered list, signaling that the beloved butterfly species is moving closer to extinction.
Butterflies at the Farnsworth Middle School Butterfly Station in Guilderland, N.Y.
The centerpiece of the Butterfly Station is the butterfly house in the courtyard, where visitors can get close-up views of a number of species, including monarchs, red admirals and painted ladies. Guests can dip their fingers in bowls of sugar water to attract the butterflies, which flutter about.
Inside the school, students staff the Metamorphosis Room, which showcases the life cycle of a butterfly. Plastic boxes containing caterpillars and chrysalises are on display, and there’s also an arts and craft area.
Much of what visitors see at the FMS Butterfly Station was conceived and designed by students, from the signs providing information about plants to the bright red shirts worn by volunteers to fun interactive activities such as “Are You Faster Than a Butterfly?” The youngest volunteers are in seventh grade, and the oldest are seniors in high school.
Farnsworth Middle School Butterfly Station in Guilderland, an Albany suburb.
“Kids are like, ‘I’ve never planted anything before,’” and I’m like, ‘I am going to teach you how to plant,’” said Joe Winchester, a science teacher at Farnsworth Middle School who shares supervisory duties with Fanning. “This is stuff you wouldn’t normally do in the classroom.”
“A lot of things about butterflies are so interesting,” Sajan said. “They help pollinate. They’re pretty. They have a purpose in life, and it’s our job to protect them. What we’re doing here actually makes an impact.”
The FMS Butterfly Station is open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday-Friday July 13 to August 11. The season culminates in a butterfly release ceremony at 11 a.m. on Aug. 12. The school is located at 6072 State Farm Road in Guilderland.
Farnsworth Middle School Butterfly Station in Guilderland, an Albany suburb.
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