Task 3b

Materials and tools for a working group: 

worksheet, pencil and pen, secondary resources (for the whole class – e.g. encyclopedia, internet), camera

In the second part of the task, the pupils focus on the opposite relationship, i. how and whether plants use animals and humans at all. The teacher first discusses the topic with the pupils. Plants use animals mainly for seed distribution or as pollinators. After the discussion, it will be the pupils‘ task to find out which insects help in pollinating the flowers. In the beginning, the teacher explains to the pupils that the flower must be pollinated in order to form a fruit.

Further they make observations at the school yard. Their task will be to map what kind of insects are involved in pollinating flowers. In this case, students will need a camera to identify unknown insects. In addition to insects, they will also notice the plants whose flowers the insects visited.

Pupils will observe insects that are interested in plant flowers. Each type of insect is tried to be recorded by pupils. After recording the individual insect species observed on the flowers of the plants, pupils focus on identification of class the insects belongs to. Then they use the encyclopedia (or the Internet) to find information about a particular insect, pupils should pay appropriate attention to its body structure. Pupils will find out that flowers can be pollinated by various insects, such as butterflies, flies, beetles, etc. At the end of the activity, each group should draw a conclusion.