Alexandra & Her Butterflies

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Christian Roberts

Alexandra Sourakov is 16 years old, and she loves butterflies.

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Her father works at this place in Florida.

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It is the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

nengard/flickr

In particular, he works with butterflies!

He is a lepidopterist!

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Travelling Steve/flickr

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When Alexandra was in the 8th grade, she participated in a science fair. Her science experiment was conducted at the

Butterfly Rainforest.

She wanted to know if butterflies were attracted to food by color or

by smell.How could you figure that out?

nengard/flickr

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We know butterflies love flowers . . .

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apdk/flickr

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but some love fruit, instead . . .

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and in the Butterfly Rainforest, you see both kinds.

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nengard/flickr

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nengard/flickr

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nengard/flickr

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nengard/flickr

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nengard/flickr

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And some butterflies, it seems, love people . . .

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Alexandra placed red, yellow, and black cardboard circles around the Rainforest. Some she covered in honey, some she did not, and she found that those butterflies who normally feed on flowers were more attracted to the colored circles, and the ones that normally

feed on fruit seemed to be drawn more by the smell of honey.

Her work was awarded first place in the state science fair. She later refined her experiment and was able to determine that

chemicals in the fruit provoke a response in the antennae of the fruit-eating butterflies.

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Do you remember that in our lesson study for the last two weeks we learned one of God’s

purposes is that we learn advanced science, for it will prepare us for the work of God just before

the closing scenes of earth’s history? (See Christian Education, page 83.)

Why do you think that is?

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Learning the beauties and the intricacies of creation helps us understand how wonderful, how tender, and how great God is. We can safely put our trust in such a loving Creator.