Participants in Lowry Nature Center's monarch tagging event walk to the prairie grass area with their nets in hopes of catching, tagging and releasing adult monarch butterflies who will begin their 2,000 mile migration to Mexico. The event was held at the Three Rivers Park District's Carver Park Reserve in Victoria Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011. Monarch butterflies travel 2,000 miles to Mexico each year and migrate back to Minnesota in the spring. The tagging data is analyzed to test hypotheses concerning monarch orientation and navigation.

Luke Goetz, 9, spins a big top on a table at the Ridgedale Library in Minnetonka Tuesday, June 29. Luke and over 80 first through fourth graders participated in Motion Mayhem, a joint science program between the Minnesota Science Museum and Hennepin County libraries.

Jenna Grady, head of the Minnesota Science Museum Summer library programs, demonstrates the science of spinning with Daniel Schoenfelder, 7, during Motion Mayhem, a larger-than-life program explaining curve balls, spinning skaters, flying objects and more, held Wednesday, June 29, at the Ridgedale library in Minnetonka.