Pollination Buzz

Contributor
National Afterschool Association
Type Category
Instructional Materials
Types
Lesson/Lesson Plan
Note
This resource, vetted by NSTA curators, is provided to teachers along with suggested modifications to make it more in line with the vision of the NGSS. While not considered to be "fully aligned," the resources and expert recommendations provide teachers with concrete examples and expert guidance using the EQuIP rubric to adapted existing resources. Read more here.

Reviews

Description

In this simple lesson, students learn about the parts of a bee, construct a bee as an art project, and model a bee’s activity during pollination.

Intended Audience

Educator
Educational Level
  • Early Elementary
Language
English
Access Restrictions

Free access - The right to view and/or download material without financial, registration, or excessive advertising barriers.

Performance Expectations

2-LS2-2 Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.

Clarification Statement: none

Assessment Boundary: none

This resource is explicitly designed to build towards this performance expectation.

Comments about Including the Performance Expectation
Preparing the materials is an important part of the success of this lesson. Use the steps in the lesson to guide the students as they create their bee models.

Science and Engineering Practices

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this science and engineering practice, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Science and Engineering Practice
Assess and build background knowledge about bee anatomy before doing this activity in order to make this Practice explicit and to provide evidence students can use to create their models.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

This resource appears to be designed to build towards this disciplinary core idea, though the resource developer has not explicitly stated so.

Comments about Including the Disciplinary Core Idea
To meet the full expectation of the Disciplinary Core Idea, provide students with additional opportunities to build background knowledge about plants and their dependence on pollination for survival.

Crosscutting Concepts

This resource is explicitly designed to build towards this crosscutting concept.

Comments about Including the Crosscutting Concept
The lesson provides a consistent comparison between each part in the model and each part of a real bee, and how those parts relate to their functions. Be sure to use the guiding questions provided in the lesson to make this connection explicit.

Resource Quality

  • Alignment to the Dimensions of the NGSS: The learner fully engages in the Performance Expectation by building their bee model and using it to disperse “seeds”. The Practice is also addressed as students create a model that represents the bee and its function of seed dispersal. One needs to be sure to build background knowledge, as mentioned in the tips, so students have some evidence to support the design and function of their model. Likewise, the teacher needs to provide experiences that will support the Disciplinary Core Idea and the understanding that some plants need pollination to survive (also mentioned in the tips).

  • Instructional Supports: The lesson provides extensive background knowledge for the teacher along with guiding questions to help students build their bee models as they relate them to real bees. Student sheets and diagrams are appropriate for instructional support for the students, however the teacher will need to pay close attention to the preparation of the materials. It is advised to build background knowledge as described in the tips above before the students do the activity

  • Monitoring Student Progress: There are no rubrics or assessment ideas provided in this lesson other than what the teacher can observe during the activity and discussion throughout the lesson. There is a suggestion to have students make a poster to show which plants would disappear if there were no bees. This lesson is well suited as an activity to build knowledge as a part of a unit of study around this standard and to help various types of learners internalize the concepts.

  • Quality of Technological Interactivity: - none -