Butterfly resources for programs and exhibits

Please see the compilation of butterfly resources now available at: https://www.nisenet.org/butterflies

The NISE Network has created a variety of resources about butterflies that are great for integrating into programs or exhibits about butterflies. These activities and resources focus on light, color, iridescence, pigmentation versus structural color, and technology inspired by nature. 

Poster / Graphics

• What's nano about butterflies Nano museum labels (graphic signs)

• Butterfly wing poster
  This illustration shows a butterfly's wing across ten orders of magnitude, from the butterfly to the atoms of which it is made.

Videos

• Zoom into a Blue Morpho Butterfly video (with and without narration)
  Zoom into the natural nanostructures that manipulate light on a Blue Morpho Butterfly! Starting with a normal digital camera, we zoom into the wing of the Blue Morpho using more powerful microscopes. We see the wing underneath an optical microscope, and finally, a scanning electron microscope. You'll see the 200 nanometer structures that produce the beautiful blue iridescent color of the Blue Morpho.

• Butterfly Blues Mr. O video
  Mr. O talks about iridescence and Blue Morpho butterflies in another "O Wow" moment at the Children's Museum of Houston.

Hands-on activities

• Exploring Structures - Butterfly short activity (NanoDays 2012)
• Colors at the Nanoscale: Butterflies, Beetles and Opals long activity

• Biomimicry: From Nature to Nanotech long activity

• DIY Nano activity

Classroom activity

• Powers of Ten with the Blue Morpho Butterfly (Middle and High School curriculum lesson)

Exhibits

• Nano Mini-Exhibition
• Changing Colors

Scientific Images

• Scientific Image - SEM Image of Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing

• Scientific Image - Nanoscale Structures on a Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing

• Scientific Image - Nanoscale Structures on a Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing

• Scientific Image - Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing

• Scientific Image - Overlapping Scales of Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing

• Scientific Image - Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing (reflected light) 

• Scientific Image - Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing (non-reflected light) 
• Scientific Image - Blue Morpho Butterfly
• Scientific Image- Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing Ridges 
• Scientific Image - Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing Microribs 
• Scientific Image - Blue Morpho Butterfly Wing Scales 
• Scientific Image - Photonic Crystal

Online workshop recording

• Online Brown-Bag: The Science Behind NanoDays 2013 - Part 2 (Recorded)
  Blue morpho butterfly discussion begins at 28 minutes: 32 seconds into the online workshop

More Butterfly resources:

• Butterfly Conservation Initiative: http://www.mybfci.org/butterfly_resources/
• Citizen science: https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/
• compilation of K-12 resources: https://www.playgroundequipment.com/butterflies-in-your-playground/