Buzzing Bees: Exploring Pollination - Climate Extensions
This is a fun, interactive activity to help participants understand the process of cross-pollination! This activity includes optional extensions that explore the impact of climate change on bees.
This workshop discusses topics, which can lead to feelings of eco-anxiety among volunteers, educators and youth if not presented in a thoughtful manner. The most important things to remember are to be honest, hopeful, developmentally appropriate, and action oriented. This workshop was created with these guidelines in mind. For more details, refer to the volunteer resource, Being Conscious of Eco-Anxiety.
This activity was created by the University of British Columbia and was adapted by Let's Talk Science National Office to include climate science. See related activities at the bottom of this page for the original version of Buzzing Bees: Exploring Pollination.
What You Need
Materials
- Scissors
- Crayons or pencil crayons
- Craft/popsicle sticks (1 per participant)
- Glue
- Cotton Balls (1 per participant)
- Cupcake liners (1 per participant)
- Yellow cake mix (check with teacher about any class allergies - mix is not for eating, but still check to be sure)
- Corn flour and regular flour should also work as an alternative. Do not use baby power, as it can be harmful to the lungs if inhaled.
- Parts of a Flower Worksheet (1 per participant)
- Flower and Bee Cut-Outs (1 per participant)
- Stopwatch or a way to keep time
Guide:
Presentation:
Physical requirements
Access to a computer with a projector for the presentation. If unavailable, a classroom board, an easel with a large notepad or poster board would do. If none of these options are possible, print off extra copies of the presentation slides to pass around the participants. Consult with an educator beforehand to determine which option will be available for your visit.
Ensure that volunteers have supplies available (cloths to wipe down tables, access to a broom) to clean up any mess after the workshop.
The second half of the activity works best in an open area, such as outside, in a gymnasium or in a room without a lot of tables or chairs. Discuss with the educator beforehand to see if any of these spaces would be available for students to move after the presentation. If not, ensure that students understand that the game is meant to be fun, but that they need to play safely.
Safety Notes
Ensure that there are no allergies in the classroom before starting this activity (see materials list for alternative “pollens”).
What To Do
Discuss with the educator beforehand to assess youth’s prior knowledge and adjust the introduction accordingly. For older audiences, you may want to focus on the climate change extensions.
Discussion: Parts of a Flower
- Hand out Parts of a Flower Worksheet for them to fill in as you go through each flower part.
- Explain the different parts of the flower (adjust details based on age-group):
- Peduncle – This is the stem or stalk of the flower that connects to the roots in the ground.
- Petal – Usually brightly coloured with different shapes and patterns depending on the species of the plant. The petals are designed to attract pollinators to the flower.
- Stamen (includes Anther and Filament) – This is the male part of the flower. This includes the long filament that holds up the anther in the middle of the flower. The anther is a sac that produces pollen.
- Pistil/Carpel (includes Stigma, Style, Ovary and Ovule) – This is the female part of the flower. This includes a sac at the centre of the flower (ovary) that produces developing seeds (ovules). The ovary has a tube like structure called a style, which has a sticky stigma at the top. The stigma helps to grab pollen from pollinators from other flowers.
- Sepal - The exterior part of the flower that protects the flower before it blooms. They are usually green and leaf-like.
Activity: Buzzing Bees: Exploring Pollination
- Color in and cut out the flower and bumble bee. Write your name on the back of your flower.
- Glue a Popsicle stick to the underside of their bumblebee and glue a cotton ball on it. This is where the "pollen" will stick.
- Glue a cupcake liner in the middle of each flower and fill it with yellow cake mix.
- Note: remind participants not to eat the cake mix.
- Dip your bees in the pollen and "fly" around the room pollinating each other's flower.
Pollination Situations
- Use the following prompts to demonstrate the different factors that can affect pollination.
- Before starting the game, ensure that students understand the importance of listening to the prompts. The game is meant to be fun, but they need to be safe.
- Optional: Provide a specific time limit for each round – bees that do not get to a flower in time do not make it to the next round. Choose a time limit that is appropriate for your location – you do not want 30 students running in between desks in a rush. Adjust as needed!
Pollination Situation #1
Remember how we mentioned that the colour and shape of the flower petals is designed to attract certain pollinators? For this round, buzz over to a flower that has a different color than yours.
- Instruct participants to stay next to the flower that they choose to buzz to.
How many flowers were pollinated in this round?
Pollination Situation #2
It is important to have a biodiverse ecosystem so that all the different species of bees will have enough food to eat! For this round, everyone is going to be the same native bee species. This time, pollinate a flower that has [a specific colour] on it.
How many flowers were pollinated in this round?
What would happen if these were the only flowers that were available to the bees? What would happen to the population? Would all the bees be able to eat?
Pollination Situation #3 (Climate Change)
- Instruct participants to move away from the flowers.
Climate change is causing the area to receive less rain and become hotter than usual, which is making it harder for flowers to grow each year. In this scenario, we are going to explore what happens when the flowers start to go away.
- Have participants move away from the flowers.
- In this game, each flower can only be visited by one bee per round (or year).
- Before the first round starts, take away 2 flowers.
- Optional: each round, take away flowers that are the same colour/style. This symbolizes how different species of flowers can be more affected by climate change each year.
- If a bee does not get any nectar, it will not survive and be taken out of the game.
- They must visit a different flower each round.
- Have a volunteer take away 2-3 flowers after each round. Each round will represent one year.
- Optional: during one round, take away more flowers than the year’s prior to symbolize an extreme weather event.
- Optional: after a few rounds, ask the participants what the neighboring community could do to help more flowers survive to the next year. Add a flower back for each new idea. For every 2 flowers that are added back, one bee can rejoin the game.
- Keep track of the number of flowers and bees that start each round on the room board or on a piece of paper.
What happened to our bee populations each year?
Wrap-Up
- Review the parts of the flower and the importance of pollination:
- Review how human activity is affecting bee populations.
- Discuss some of the current actions being taken to help protect bee populations. It is helpful to include examples of local action to help lower eco-anxiety.
- Discuss ways that participants can help protect bee populations (including reducing greenhouse gas emissions).
Note: It is important to be conscious of your audience and consider that not all youth have the same options available to choose (i.e. rural students may not have access to public transit, food availability and choices are not always equal). Allow youth to come up with their own ideas instead of directing them on what to do.
- Discuss careers related to the topics discussed in today’s workshop and what participants will need (schooling, experience, etc. ) to get into those careers.
Discovery
When a pollen grain moves from the anther male part of a flower to the stigma female part, pollination happens. This is the first step in a process that produces seeds, fruits, and the next generation of plants. This can happen through self-pollination flower pollinates itself, wind and water pollination, or through the work of animals and insects that move pollen from flower to flower.
Birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, bees are pollinators. They visit flowers to drink nectar or feed off of pollen and transport pollen grains as they move from flower to flower.
Many bee populations, especially native bees, are at risk due to human activity and climate change. They are at risk due to habitat loss, pesticides and planting monocultures. Climate change is causing in changes in temperature, precipitation and weather events that affect bee and flower health.
Pollinators, like bees, are responsible for a lot of the food that we rely on! It is important to protect bee populations to ensure the health of plants, animals and even us humans. We can help by providing native bees with shelter, not using harmful pesticides, planting native plants in our gardens and by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
- Take the workshop outside! Have participants observe pollinators in action. They can collect different types of flowers and dissect them to see what each part looks like for different species.
- The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are calls to action to make the world a better place. It calls to “end poverty and inequality, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity”.
This workshop explored topics that relate to the following SDGs:- SDG # 2 – Zero Hunger
- SDG # 13 – Climate Action
- SGS # 15 – Life on Land
If time is available, have participants discuss the importance of protecting bee populations as it relates to the goals.
- Explore the Canada Planting Guides from Pollinator Partnership Canada to see which plants are the best to grow to support pollinators in different areas of the country.
- How are the World’s Bee Populations Dying (STEM in Context) – This resource looks at Colony Collapse Disorder, herbicides & pesticides, and more.
- Pollinators are Important! (STEM in Context) – Insects and other animals that are pollinators play an important role in ecosystems.
- If you happen to spot a bee, take a picture of it and ask an adult to submit it to the Bumble Bee Watch They will identify your bee species. This helps scientists and researchers keep track of the different types of bee species in North America.
- In addition to the careers listed below, science and technology advances are creating new careers everyday! Watch “That’s a Real Job! Space Farmer” and start a discussion on how pollination may be done in space.
Additional Activities
- If there is enough time, include a Storytime in your visit! Pick a book that relates to bees, pollination or climate change, or check out one of our previous Storytime example:
- Beautiful Bees (Volunteer Hands-On Activities) – Students build a bee from foam balls and pipe cleaners to learn the anatomy of the bee, make a proboscis to “eat like a bee” and learn the bee waggle dance.
- Design and Build a Bee House (Lessons) – Students will learn about the human impacts on bee populations as they design, test and observe a structure for solitary bees.
- Bee Helpers (Lessons) – Students will learn about the importance of bees and the human impacts on bee populations.
What's Happening?
When a pollen grain moves from the anther male part of a flower to the stigma female part, pollination happens. This is the first step in a process that produces seeds, fruits, and the next generation of plants. This can happen through self-pollination flower pollinates itself, wind and water pollination, or through the work of animals and insects that move pollen from flower to flower.
Birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, bees are pollinators. They visit flowers to drink nectar or feed off of pollen and transport pollen grains as they move from flower to flower.
Why Does it Matter?
Many bee populations, especially native bees, are at risk due to human activity and climate change. They are at risk due to habitat loss, pesticides and planting monocultures. Climate change is causing in changes in temperature, precipitation and weather events that affect bee and flower health.
Pollinators, like bees, are responsible for a lot of the food that we rely on! It is important to protect bee populations to ensure the health of plants, animals and even us humans. We can help by providing native bees with shelter, not using harmful pesticides, planting native plants in our gardens and by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Investigate Further
- Take the workshop outside! Have participants observe pollinators in action. They can collect different types of flowers and dissect them to see what each part looks like for different species.
- The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are calls to action to make the world a better place. It calls to “end poverty and inequality, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity”.
This workshop explored topics that relate to the following SDGs:- SDG # 2 – Zero Hunger
- SDG # 13 – Climate Action
- SGS # 15 – Life on Land
If time is available, have participants discuss the importance of protecting bee populations as it relates to the goals.
- Explore the Canada Planting Guides from Pollinator Partnership Canada to see which plants are the best to grow to support pollinators in different areas of the country.
- How are the World’s Bee Populations Dying (STEM in Context) – This resource looks at Colony Collapse Disorder, herbicides & pesticides, and more.
- Pollinators are Important! (STEM in Context) – Insects and other animals that are pollinators play an important role in ecosystems.
- If you happen to spot a bee, take a picture of it and ask an adult to submit it to the Bumble Bee Watch They will identify your bee species. This helps scientists and researchers keep track of the different types of bee species in North America.
- In addition to the careers listed below, science and technology advances are creating new careers everyday! Watch “That’s a Real Job! Space Farmer” and start a discussion on how pollination may be done in space.
Additional Activities
- If there is enough time, include a Storytime in your visit! Pick a book that relates to bees, pollination or climate change, or check out one of our previous Storytime example:
- Beautiful Bees (Volunteer Hands-On Activities) – Students build a bee from foam balls and pipe cleaners to learn the anatomy of the bee, make a proboscis to “eat like a bee” and learn the bee waggle dance.
- Design and Build a Bee House (Lessons) – Students will learn about the human impacts on bee populations as they design, test and observe a structure for solitary bees.
- Bee Helpers (Lessons) – Students will learn about the importance of bees and the human impacts on bee populations.
