New! Pollinator Picnic

Download & Print – POP – Grade 3 Standards

Life Science:

Students develop an understanding of the flow of energy in a system beginning with the Sun to and among organisms. They also understand that plants and animals (including humans) have specialized internal and external structures and can respond to stimuli to increase survival.

Core Ideas:

• • L1: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.
• • L2: Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms.
• • L3: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
• • L4: The unity and diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Standards:

• 3.L1U1.5 – Develop and use models to explain that plants and animals (including humans) have internal and external structures that serve various functions that aid in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
• 3.L2U1.6 – Plan and carry out investigations to demonstrate ways plants and animals react to stimuli.
• 3.L2U1.7 – Develop and use system models to describe the flow of energy from the Sun to and among living organisms.
• 3.L2U1.8 – Construct and argument from evidence that organisms are interdependent.

Social Studies

The content areas of civics, economics, geography, history, and disciplinary skills and processes.

Standards:

• 3.SP4.1 – Explain probable causes and effects of events.

Download & Print – POP – Grade 4 Standards

Life Science:

Students develop an understanding of the diversity of past and present organisms, factors impacting organism diversity, and evidence of change of organisms over time.

Core Ideas:

• • L1: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.
• • L2: Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms
• • L3: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
• • L4: The unity and diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Standards:

• 4.L4U.11 – Analyze and interpret environmental data to demonstrate that species either adapt and survive or go extinct over time.

Social Studies:

The content areas of civics, economics, geography, history, and disciplinary skills and processes.

Standards:

• 4.SP4.1 – Explain probable causes and effects of events and developments.

Download & Print – POP – Grade 5 Standards

Life Science:

Students develop an understanding of patterns and how genetic information is passed from generation to generation. They also develop the understanding of how genetic information and environmental features impact the survival of an organism.

Core Ideas:

• • L1: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.
• • L2: Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms.
• • L3: Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
• • L4: The unity and diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Standards:

• 5.L3U1.9 – Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about patterns between the offspring of plants, and the offspring of animals (including humans): construct an explanation of how genetic information is passed from one generation to the next.</
• 5.L3U1.10 – Construct an explanation based on evidence that the changes in an environment can affect the traits in a population of organisms.
• 5.L4U3.11 – Obtain, evaluate, and communicate evidence about how natural and human-caused changes to habitats or climate can impact populations.
• 5.L4U3.12 – Construct an argument based on evidence that inherited characteristics can be affected by behavior and/or environmental conditions.

Social Studies:

The content areas of civics, economics, geography, history, and disciplinary skills and processes.

Standards:

• 5.G2.1 – Describe how natural and human-caused changes to habitats or climate can impact our world.

POLLINATOR PICNIC

Background

Pollinator Picnic introduces students to the concept of pollination and to specific pollinators for five of the plants in Sabino Canyon. Students will explore the influence pollinators have on people, as well as the influence people have on pollinators.

The students are introduced to the concept of a pollinator by learning about the partnership between bees and many of the plants we eat. Students envision a picnic with food items that are the result of pollination by bees or wind. When bees are removed due to various potential environmental hazards, the picnic is seriously limited without the presence of bees in the environment.

The students are encouraged to answer why plants are important for our survival and the survival of other animals. We review how plants are more than just food for us. Plants create oxygen for us to breathe and provide materials for our shelter, medicines, and clothing; they enrich soil, and they enhance the beauty of our planet.

We ask the students to identify the basic structure of the plant (root, stem, leaf, and flower) and the function of each structure (absorb water, support the plant, make food for the plant, and attract pollinators, respectively). The parts of the flower (pistil and stamen) are identified, and their role in pollination is described. Two model flowers aid in the demonstration of self-pollination and cross-pollination, the need for a pollinator since the plant can’t move itself, and the production of fruit and seeds.

The color, odor, shape, and presence of nectar are illustrated for five plants from Sabino Canyon (saguaro, ocotillo, brittle bush, sacred datura, and a wildflower). Each of the students is given one of five pollinator puppets from Sabino Canyon (bat, sphinx moth, hummingbird, bee, and butterfly) and are asked to identify to which of the plants they are most likely to be attracted, given their innate abilities. A game is played in which the children use the puppets to engage in cross-pollination with the plant to which they are best adapted. The game also illustrates some of the hazards (natural and human-induced) that can take place to prevent pollination from occurring.

Vocabulary

Pollination: The transfer of pollen from the stamen to the pistil.

Pollinator: Something that transfers the pollen from the stamen to the pistil. For example, bees, birds, bats, butterflies, moths and wind.

Carbon dioxide (CO2): A gas in the air that is absorbed by plants.

Oxygen (O2): A gas in the air that is produced by plants and used by animals to breathe.

Root: The part of the plant that anchors it in the ground and absorbs water and nutrients from the soil.

Stem: The part of the plant that supports the plant above the ground and carries water from the roots to the other parts of the plant.

Leaf: The part of the plant where the plant absorbs sunlight and carbon dioxide and uses water absorbed from the roots to create food for itself through the process of photosynthesis. It also makes oxygen which allows us to breathe.

Producer: A living thing that produces its own food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide in a process called photosynthesis.

Consumer: Animals that obtain food by eating plants or other animals.

Photosynthesis: The process by which a green plant uses energy from the sun to transform water and carbon dioxide into food and oxygen.

Flower: The part of the plant that produces the fruit and seeds and is usually surrounded by brightly colored petals.

Petal: The part of the flower that attracts pollinators with its shape, color, and smell.

Blossom: A flower on a tree or bush.

Stamen: The part of the flower that contains the pollen.

Pollen: A sticky powder on the stamen of a plant that is transferred to a pistil to produce a fruit with seeds.

Pistil: The part of the flower that receives the pollen and where the fruit will grow containing the seeds.

Nectar: A sugary fluid that attracts pollinators to plants.

Nectar robber: An animal that robs nectar from a flower without pollinating it.

Fruit: The part of the plant that contains the seeds.

Seed: The part of a plant that grows into a new plant.

Reproduce: To make a new plant.

Cross-pollination: The transfer of pollen from one plant to the pistil of another plant of the same or similar species.

Self-pollination: The transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil on the same plant.

Predator: An animal that eats other animals.

Pesticide: A substance used to destroy insects or other animals.

Herbicide: A substance that is used to destroy plants.

• Flower Parts Worksheet
• Pollination Crossword – grades 3 & 4
• Pollination Crossword grades 5 & 6
• Pollination Word Search grades 3 & 4
• Pollination Word Search grades 5 & 6
• Standards: POP – Grade 3
• Standards: POP – Grade 4
• Standards: POP – Grade 5