From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

Activity 30: Pick Me! Pick Me!

Grades: K-4 (can be adapted for 5-8)

Associated Lesson Topics:

• Sexual reproduction
• Insect pollinators
• Plant-animal relationships

National Standards:

• SCIENCE: Standard A, Standard C
• LANGUAGE ARTS: Reading 5, 7, 10
• MATH: Measurement Standard

Planting the Seed...

What is the first thing that you notice about flowers? What do flowers do? Can you name some ways that humans use flowers? Do any other organisms use flowers?

Teacher Information:

Once students have a general understanding of flower anatomy, this activity can be used to introduce the topics of pollination and flowering plant reproduction. Ideally, they have already learned about the structure of flowers, and now they will investigate how structure relates to function. In this exercise, students will observe several flowering plants over a period of time and infer which plant characteristics attract pollinators.

Necessary Materials:

• Colored pencils.
• String.
• Small rulers.
• Magnifying glass to identify insects.
• Journals.
• Insect field guide.
• Data sheets.

Procedure:

• During a warm spring week, take your class to a place where there are wildflowers of different sizes, colors, and shapes. This may involve a field trip or be in your schoolyard garden.
• Have each student locate three flowers that look very different from each other. Have each student write his or her name on masking tape and attach it to each of the three plants using yarn or string. Encourage them to choose at least one plant with very small or colorless flowers as well as those with large, showy flowers. The greater variety they have in their flowers, the more variety they are likely to see in pollinators.
• Students should draw detailed pictures of the flowers in their journals, using appropriate flower size, color, shape, and patterns.
• Once they have completed their drawings, students will observe each plant for 10 minutes to see how many potential pollinators visit their flowers. Emphasize how important it is that students remain quiet during these observation periods.
• Students should record observations for each plant in their journals. Their observations should include the number of insects that visit their plant during the 10-minute period and details on their interactions. Older students can identify, using field guides, the different types of insects that visit their plants. The students should make these observations on their plants on three separate days and then average the number of insects that they observe.

Harvesting the Crop...

Back in the classroom, compile a list of student observations on the blackboard or on a large chart. What conclusions can we draw based on your observations? Which flower color attracted the most insects? The least? Did the size of the flower seem to make a difference? Were there any surprise visitors? Why is it important that the plant attracts pollinators? What would happen if no pollinators visited your plant?

This activity can be expanded for older students. If they have identified the different types of insects that have visited their flowers, they can conduct additional research on those insects to determine if the conclusions that they drew were correct. For example, Was insect "X" really drawn to plant "Y" because of the flower color?

Sources

• Magnifying glasses
  Carolina Biological Supply www.carolina.com

• Insect field guide
  Looking at Insects David Suzuki, Warner, 1986
  The Insect Book Connie Zakowski, Rainbow Books, 1997
  Insects All Around Us Cornell University www.cce.cornell.edu/publications/catalog.html
  Carolina Biological Supply www.carolina.com

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