OBJECTIVES:

Students will understand:

1. The pollination process and show examples of bee pollination on specific plants,
2. The interdependence between insects, plants, and humans,
3. That insects can have a negative impact on their ecosystem.

 

MATERIALS:

– Access to a library or reference books on bees, butterflies, and pollination
– Copies of Pollination Parties worksheet => Click HERE
– Markers or colored pencils

 

PROCEDURE:

1. Review the concept of pollination with students. Explain that pollination is the process of moving pollen from one plant to another. It is through this process that plant reproduction happens. Briefly discuss the importance of plant reproduction to all living things.

2. Review the ways in which bees and butterflies pollinate plants as they get food for themselves. Bees, while sipping nectar from flowers, get pollen stuck on various parts of their bodies. This pollen then rubs off on certain parts of the next flower that they fly to. Bees are the most important pollinators in nature.

3. Explain to students that they are going to find out more about the pollination parties that are taking place on farms around the world. Pass out the Pollination Parties worksheet. Students will start the activity by thinking about how bees make people uncomfortable through the Imagine question. Then they will consider some of the plant products that benefit from bee pollination.

4. Ask each student to select a plant from the worksheet and use the library or Internet, or both, to conduct research on the plant and how it is pollinated.

5. Allow time for research and completion of the Pollination Parties worksheet. When students have completed their work, compile each worksheet into a class book on pollination for your media center, and then lead a discussion about the ways in which bees are useful to people.

 

2. Bees are terrific fliers. They can fly forward, backward, and sideways, and they can even hover! If scientists built an airplane that could fly like a bee, what would it look like? Would it have wings? Propellers? What shape would it be?