This Virtual Pathway focuses on on a) the flower and its role in plant reproduction, b) the insects and their role in pollination and c) the seed and ways of their dispersal. It is aimed at mobilizing students’ interest and raising questions about the pollen’s route and the voyage of seeds, searching for information and answering their own question, using ICT and interactive educational material of the Natural History Museum of Crete in the classroom.
Student Learning Objectives:
- Distinguish the flower and the fruit
- Understand the life cycle of a plant (pollination, seed production, reproduction).
- Recognize the seeds’ role in plant reproduction.
- Realize the importance of the insects-pollinators for the survival of most living creatures on Earth.
- Learn how to approach a scientific issue, how to investigate, to observe, to come up to conclusions and solutions, etc. Generally, to gain a scientific way of thinking.
- Regarding the use of new technologies, familiarize with the use of ICT through information retrieval, data collection and organization, manage and analyze them and draw conclusions.
- Cooperation, teamwork, development of critical thinking, socialization, environmental awareness, and sensitiveness.
- Cultivate higher forms of thinking, such as analysis, synthesis and comprehension of information.
Keywords
Biology, flowers, pollination, fertilization, insects, seeds, dispersal
Age Range
9-11 years old
Setting
School, Natural History Museum, Web
Duration
In school: 7 hours (5 pre-visit and 2 post-visit)
In the museum (virtually): 2 hours
Technical Requirements
Computer, printer, books, internet access
Connection with the curriculum
The content of the program “Natural ecosystems of the eastern Mediterranean” is part of the course “Environmental Study” and specifically of the thematic unit “Nature is our Home” (4nd grade of Primary School). The program is fully compatible with the Interdisciplinary Unified Curriculum Framework for the course “Environmental Study” and fulfills the purpose of its teaching. It fully meets the requirements of the curriculum, as well as the individual learning objectives of the thematic units “The routes of the pollen”, “The voyage of the seeds” and “Plant reproduction”.
Finally, it could also support the initiative “Skills’ Lab” under the pillar: “ENVIRONMENT”.
Structure
This educational pathway follows an inquiry-based pedagogical approach, organised into 3 logical stages:
- Pre-Visit
- Visit
- Post-Visit
Teacher Support Materials
Useful resources, suitable for the age group of your students, are available at the “Teacher Support Materials” tab.
Guidance for Preparation
- Communication with the school director and the teachers involved to the project.
- Guidelines for the implementation.
- Suggest resources (ppt, videos, web pages, printed material).
Pre-visit (5 hours)
Orientation information
Provoke curiosity
The teacher tries to mobilize the students’ interest around the concepts of pollination and fertilization, as well as the role of flowers, seeds and insects’ pollinators. Some examples of such motivating activities are the following:
- Watch videos related to pollination and fertilization
- Through exploring solutions to a real and contemporary problem, such as the publication “Bees die on the altar… of the palm tree!” of 09/10/2011 at Vima Science: “Uncontrolled sprays with dangerous insecticides destroyed the beekeeping of Attica. Unfortunately, neither the bee nor the bee larvae have been living in Attica, Greece, lately, and this is due to the “invasion” of pesticides that are sprayed … generously and in the wrong way in urban areas to deal with a beetle that decimates the palm trees”, as beekeepers and scientists complain.
What is the situation? Thousands of beehives in Attica have said goodbye to us a long time ago, since they are poisoned after the visits of bees to the “flowers of evil” of the palm trees, while the palm trees continue to die as well.
To all this “great death” of fauna and flora, the recent sprays are added to deal with the dangerous mosquito-host of the West Nile virus that shook our country last summer and especially the inhabitants of Eastern Attica. Sprays that, according to experts, may have contributed to the recent widespread extinction of bees.
All this may seem important only for the beekeepers, but the truth is that without these humble bees we risk not having to eat!
Question:
“Do you agree with the journalist’s view, that without bees we risk being left without food or do you consider it excessive”?
Answer:
“To give an answer we have to organize a little research.”
Here are some helpful tips for students that can help them in their research.
According to scientific studies:
- 84% of cultivated plants need the bees for pollination
- 80% of wild vegetation exist due to bees!
- These insects, which are considered the most economically important for humans, participate directly or indirectly in 15-30% of food production.
Building pre–experiences
An interesting and easy method to build pre-experience on the concepts of ecosystems and the role of plants and pollinators, is to complete the thinking map suggested in figure 1 (in Greek).
Figure 1. Thinking map about the basic meaning of the word “Ecosystem” (in Greek)
The thinking map is drawn on cardboard and placed on a classroom wall so that students can refer to it during the program. It could also be used during the final stage, in the confirmation phase.
After the above proposed activities, the students are divided into groups to process the concepts a) “Insects and their role in pollination”, b) “Flower and its role in plant reproduction” and c) “Seed and ways of their dispersal”. and edit the relevant worksheets found here, here, and here respectively. Each worksheet consists of three parts: “I guess“, “I investigate” and “I verify“, which correspond to the three steps of the basic learning process of the program, i.e. Questions and hypotheses, Research, and Verification.
Questions and Hypotheses
Each worksheet has three formal questions about the concept a) “Insects and their role in pollination”, b) “Flower and its role in plant reproduction” and c) “Seed and ways of their dispersal”. These questions cover the most important issues addressed in the program. The group works together and tries to make hypotheses based on their pre-existing knowledge, i.e. to think of possible answers to these questions. The group’s hypotheses are written on the “I guess” page of the worksheet.
The questions for each concept are:
a) Insects and their role in pollination
- What are insects and how do they differ from other animals?
- Why do bees fly near flowers in spring?
- Plants need insects, insects need plants, or do they need each other?
b) Flower and its role in plant reproduction
- What are the parts of the flower?
- Why do plants form flowers?
- What happens when the flower withers and falls off the plant?
c) Seed and ways of their dispersal
- Why do plants make seeds? What if the plants did not make seeds?
- What needs to happen for the plant to be able to form seeds?
- Do seeds travel and if so, how?
Students are expected to have incomplete knowledge of the above topics. The teacher, in this case, does not try to fill in the gaps by giving the correct answers but helps the students to realize that they need to do careful research in order to enrich their knowledge in a more systematic way.
PLAN AND CONDUCT SIMPLE INVESTIGATION
Research
After the group has written its hypotheses for each question, it can then conduct a little research to come up with the most likely answers to each of the above questions. Each group will cooperatively make a research, based on the presentation about flowers, seeds, pollination and fertilisation (in Greek).
The answers to each question will be written on the “I investigate” page.
After completing their research, the students are ready for the virtual visit phase.
Support or guidance available before the visit
For more info, please contact Dr Iasmi Stathi, Head of NHMC Education Lab here: iasmi@nhmc.uoc.gr
Visit (the minimal core of the learning experience) (2 hours)
Provoke curiosity: questions to ask, things to observe
After completing their research in the pre-visit phase and filling in the “I guess” and “I investigate” sections of their worksheets, the students are ready for the virtual visit phase, where they will continue their investigation and finalize their quest. This phase includes activities, based on worksheets that the students fill in while making their research in the NHMC virtually. During this phase, the students will:
- Consolidate the concepts of pollination and fertilization.
- Learn about the flower and its parts.
- Learn about the role of the flower in plant fertilization.
- Get to know insects’ pollinators.
- Identify different types of seeds and learn about their dispersal ways.
The core experience
For this part you will need the following:
- The worksheet about the life cycle of a plant (flower, pollination, fertilization, fruit, seed) available here (in Greek)
- Fresh flowers, preferably hibiscus (X4)
- Glue stick
- Pencils, eraser, sharpener, etc.
- Magnifying glass
- Various seeds
- 4 trays with the labels air, water, animals, other way, for grouping the seeds (labels in Greek available here)
Watch the video about the flower and its parts (in Greek) here and try to fill in the relevant worksheet (in Greek) about the life cycle of a plant (flower, pollination, fertilization, fruit, seed). You may find the “flower card” here, where all the parts of the flower are depicted and will help you to fill in the worksheet.
Then, watch the video about pollination, fertilization and seeds’ formation (in Greek) here and keep on filling your worksheet. Parallelly, you could play the game about the formation of an apple, using these cards. Finally, watch the last video about how the seeds are dispersed, i.e. how they travel (in Greek) here. The seeds’ travel guide will help you to put the seeds into groups, according their way of dispersal.
Finally, after having completed your research in the visit phase and filled in the worksheet about the life cycle of a plant, you are now ready to check your worksheet again and proceed with the “verification” session.
Support or guidance available during the visit (optional)
- Combine your observations with the info you may find in the Educational Material in the VP Repository (virtualpathways.eu)
Post–visit (3 hours)
Communicate explanation
At this stage, each group will complete the “I verify” section of the worksheets about a) “Insects and their role in pollination”, b) “Flower and its role in plant reproduction”, and c) “Seed and ways of their dispersal”.
For each question, the students will compare their assumptions with their answers through their research and the information they gathered from the activities during the visit phase. This way, each group will be able to verify which hypotheses and which answers were correct.
Then, each group will present the results of their work in the classroom. The groups are encouraged to discuss, judge, and make a) self-evaluation for their work, b) well-meaning evaluation for the work of other groups, and c) decision on the elaboration of a collective project that will announce the results of their work (e.g., announcements in another class, parents, etc., book to be written by the groups, PowerPoint presentation, creation of a play, theatrical play, etc.).
Pre-visit, visit, and post-visit materials
In order to summarize and consolidate the information and knowledge acquired by the students, additional activities can be done in the classroom. Here are some suggestions:
- Gather several seeds and try to group them according the ways of their dispersal.
- Make a story, a comic, a drawing or a short movie about the life cycle of a plant, beginning from the seed and ending in the seed.
- Create a theatrical play on a scenario, based on “How is life on Earth on 2050 without insects, which have been already extinct?.”
