Curated OER
The Flower and the Fly
It's like a biological "Beauty and the Beast!" The fascinating mutualism between a South African meganosed fly and a deep-throated geranium builds a case study in coevolution for your biology buffs to analyze. After reading about this...
Curated OER
Pollination of Flowers by Moths
Turn your classroom into a pollination station as your kids transform into moths or predators trying to survive and aiding in plant reproduction along the way. Using silent party blowers as proboscises, the moths will have two minutes to...
Curated OER
Bee Pollen Popular
The world would be a much different place without the help of pollinators. Read about the important role bats, hummingbirds, and various insects play in plant reproduction, exploring the interdependence of living things in an ecosystem....
Curated OER
Pollinators and Wildflowers
Students explore how plants depend on pollinators to reproduce. In this pollination lesson students dissect a local flower and collect and identify pollinating insects.
Curated OER
Pollination-Plants and Flowers Lesson Plan
Students study the reproductive parts and pollination for a flower. In this pollination lesson plan, students dissect flowers to perform an investigation. Students also use tube socks to show how pollination works. A diagram is included.
Curated OER
Communication in Bees
Eighth graders identify and interpret a scientific investigation and a hypothesis through experimentation and testing a hypothesis. They identify what scientists hypothesized about the communication of stingless bees. Finally, 8th...
Curated OER
Design a Pollinator
Learners make a scientific drawing of a pollinator with at least five traits that make them well adapted to a given plant(s). They describe in their science notebook the adaptations that make their pollinator well suited to a given plant.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Human and the Honeybee
Both honeybees and humans originated in East Africa, and the connection between us has survived the ages. Dino Martins encourages us to remember how much we owe to these magnificent insects. [6:25]
Encyclopedia of Earth
Encyclopedia of Earth: Botany: Pollination
Scientific article detailing what pollination is, types of pollination, animals (mainly insects) that facilitate pollination, ways pollination can take place, its evolution, pollination in agriculture, and threats to pollination....
Encyclopedia of Earth
Encyclopedia of Earth: Botany: Bumblebee
Article on the bumblebee. Covers physical features, life in a colony and as a pollinator, and threats to its survival. Includes links to additional resources. (Published: April 14, 2008)
Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy: Discover the Culprit Behind Declining Bee Populations
Bees provide vital benefits to people, including crop pollination and products such as honey and beeswax. But we're losing bees through colony collapse disorder. In this lesson, students are put at the cutting edge of research on...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees
A lesson investigating the decreasing population of the US honeybee population. There is a video that explores possible causes and the effect this decrease has on our environment. After the video, the students can test their knowledge...
Technovation
Curiosity Machine: Challenge: Build a Blooming Flower
Can you create a blooming flower that would attract pollinators? This Curiosity Machine project challenges students to make this flower using common household items. Site includes a place for students to document their process as well as...
Scientific American
Scientific American: The Buzz on Bees: In Depth Reports
Read this multimedia article about the disappearance of bee colonies worldwide. Find out why it is crucial to saving this important pollinator from extinction.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Biology: Bird Ecology
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Discusses the diversity of bird habitats and food sources.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Biology: Flowering Plants
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Describes the parts of a flower and the classification and evolution of flowering plants.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Butterfly for Kids: Learn About the Flying Insect
What are butterflies? Kids find out about the metamorphasis that makes a catterpillar turn into a butterfly.
Other
Clermont College: Coevolution and Pollination
The first part of this page explores coevolution by giving some examples.
Other
Unusual Pollination: Bee Orchid
Some flowers have developed adaptations that lure insects to them for pollination. Visit this website to learn about the very unusual adaptations of the bee orchid.