Elisabet O. Orville
“Pollination Ecology” is a unit designed to introduce students to the mutual adaptations of flowering plants and their pollinators; honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds (also wind-pollination). Students will study both flowers and insects in the lab in order to see how they have become adapted to one another. One goal of the unit is an understanding of co-evolution—that species are dynamic and changing, with respect to each other. Another goal is the understanding that insects have different senses from humans and a third goal is the practical applications of pollination. The unit is best taught in May when there is an abundance of flowering plants outdoors.
(Recommended for 10th grade Biology, 10th through 12th grade Botany, 7th and 8th grade Life Sciences, and 4th through 7th grade Talented and Gifted Program.)
Key Words
Plants Pollination Biology Ecology Environmental Science
