OBJECTIVE

Students will understand that flowers and pollinators, through evolution, have adapted to each other.

Students will understand that pollinators go to flowers for the food sources of nectar and pollen, and flowers attract pollinators to help them with pollination.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How does pollination work? Why is pollination important?

MATERIALS NEEDED

Flower and pollinator laminated cards

Video set up on smart board

Variety of flower seeds that attract different pollinators

4-pack for each student

Soil

Trays

PROCEDURE

Introduction: Watch The Hidden Beauty of Pollination.

What do you notice in this video? What does pollination mean? How do you think plants are pollinated? How do you think flowers attract animal pollinators? What do animals get out of the deal? What do plants get out of the deal? What do we get? 

Activity: Pollinator and Plant Game

• Have flowers introduce themselves, and plant themselves in the garden
• Have pollinators find their plants
• Have pollinators introduce why they are with their plant
• Have students return to seats
• What adaptations might these animals have gained over time in this process? Think about what helps them, what is valuable to them.
• Let’s look at these photos: how have butterflies and bees adapted to be good pollinators? 
• Background: Attraction and competition among plants for pollinators and competition among pollinators for food sources has lead to specialized relationships between plants and the animals that are their pollinators. Natural selection favored those flowering plants that were most attractive to pollinators and those pollinators were best able to find and get nectar easily from flowers. 

We’re going to plant our own pollinator garden. Why do we want pollinators in our school garden? 

• Now let’s look at these different flowers we’re going to put into our garden. What pollinators will they attract?
• Butterfly milkweed, Moonflower, Sunflower, Bachelors Button, Calendula

Activity 2: Start seeds in class

Wrap up: So what do the plants get out the deal? What do the pollinators get out of it?