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Learning intention: I will conduct an experiment to test if pollinators have a preferred colour.
Learning intention: I will conduct an experiment to test if pollinators have a preferred colour.
Success criteria:
Identify several types of insect pollinators
Follow a procedure to conduct an experiment
Make observations and record findings in a data sheet
Lesson content
Lesson content
Survival of living things
Inquiry question: How are environments and living things interdependent?
Students:
describe how living things depend on each other and the environment to survive, for example:
− bees and flowers
− birds eat and disperse seeds
Lesson description
Lesson description
Students conduct a field experiment to test colour preference among insect pollinators. By making observations and collecting data, students work in small groups to collect data for later analysis to determine any trends and patterns in their results.
Estimated time
Estimated time
60 minutes
Supporting materials required
Supporting materials required
Stopwatch, clock or phone timer
Garden with flowering plants
Clipboards and pencils
Activity #1 (individual)
Activity #1 (individual)
Pollination Experiment
Pollination Experiment
Print a class set of the experiment outline.
Carefully read instructions aloud, before checking student's understanding and comprehension.
Display the identification guide below, and examine the photos and information regarding each targeted insect.
Take class outside to a suitable area eg: Bush Tucker Garden, Kitchen Garden etc and designate individual zones (eg: garden beds) for small groups to work.
Conduct 'weather survey' as a whole class.
Commence 10 minute pollinator observation and recording session, ensuring students complete their own data sheet.
Return to class, and safely store data sheets for following 'Comparing Data' lesson.
pollinator colour preference experiment.docxInsect Identification Guide
Insect Identification Guide
Honey Bees are an introduced species in Australia, however are one of the most recognizable insects. They are brown with a banded yellow and brown. Their head, body and legs are densely covered in hair. These highly social insects live in large hives dominated by a single queen. The queen is larger than workers or the male drones, and is responsible for egg laying and for controlling the hive using pheromones. The majority of the hive is made up of worker bees that build and maintain the hive, and collect nectar and pollen to feed the developing bee larvae.
Many species of flies depend on flowers for the sweet, sugary nectar to survive as adults. They can be identified by their large compound eyes, fast movement and coarse hairs which cover their bodies. They are highly variable in colour, from dull grey or brown to shiny green or vivid blue.
Hover flies are small to medium sized flies with large heads, large eyes, and small or inconspicuous antennae. Their bodies are medium to slender, with a waist that is not significantly narrow, unless it is a wasp mimicking species. They have one pair of clear wings, and the banded forms have yellow and black bands of equal width.
Ants can be found anywhere from coastal mangroves to urban backyards and inside our homes. Their success, in part, is because of their ability to communicate with each other. They have the most complex form of chemical communication in the animal kingdom and together they accomplish tasks beyond any individual insect.
Ants are formidable opponents and defend their foraging area from other animals. They can overwhelm by sheer weight of numbers and have offensive armoury that may include fierce jaws and potent stings.
Butterflies are easily identified insects due to their large and colourful wings. They use their long tongue, or proboscis, to reach deep inside flowers to drink the sweet nectar. Butterflies have a very unique life-cycle, beginning life as an egg, hatching into a caterpillar, which forms a cocoon and finally metamorphosing into a butterfly.
Stingless bee's are a typically small insect with a black or dark brown coloration. These insects are native to Australia and are very important to Aboriginal People, who call them 'Sugarbag Bees' due to the sweet honey they produce. The sweet honey formed and important source of food, while the wax from the hives was used to form the mouthpiece's of Didgeridoos'.
The Blue-banded Bee stands out because of the blue bands across its black abdomen and because of its darting, hovering flight pattern. The Blue-banded Bee lives in urban areas, forests and woodlands, and heath throughout most of Australia.
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