Encouraging students to pursue STEM careers, especially motivating students in underrepresented populations, is critical to our nation's technological and economic future. There is an ongoing research program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville which uses motion capture to study the flight characteristics and kinematics of Monarch butterflies. The objectives are to understand how Monarchs can quickly maneuver and yet still efficiently migrate long distances, and then use this knowledge in the design of derivative MAVs. This paper describes a collaboration between university researchers and an elementary grade educator that uses a novel cross-curriculum approach to present and teach STEM concepts to fifth graders in a rural community school with limited financial and human resources for such activities. The curriculum explores the amazing flight and navigational capabilities of Monarchs and biomimicry as a basis for motivating STEM learning. The effectiveness of this approach is confirmed by initial responses from students and parents that indicate an increased interest in engineering as a career choice.
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