Investigating Pollinator Habitats
Pollination ecoSTEM Kit Materials Used: Cargo Wagon, Raised Bed Kit, Compost, Seeds, Trowels, & Gloves
ENGAGE - Students Observe This Phenomenon
GATHER
REASON
EXPLORE a Kit-Supported Learning Experience
Students will observe pollinators in action, in the schoolyard by participating in the City Nature Challenge. Alternatively, they may plant mammoth sunflowers and participate in the Great Sunflower Project. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count and Cornell’s eBird. Stuck inside for now? Check out the Project FeederWatch Bird Cams.
EVALUATE
Students should be able to explain that a number of different types of animals are considered pollinators, including bees, butterflies, beetles, flies, moths, bats, and hummingbirds. They should also be able to explain that pollinators – and insects in general – are threatened by loss of habitat and use of pesticides.
ELABORATE
Students can learn about and participate in projects to conserve pollinators, an engineering design challenge to build an air bee ‘n bee habitat; make seed balls for pollinator habitats; nest boxes for birds; or clean up the schoolyard and analyze trash.
EXTEND
Georgia students may plan and plant a Certified Pollinator Habitat including water, nest locations, nectar or host plants for 6 species of butterflies, during multiple seasons, using 9 conservation practices. Or they can seek Schoolyard Habitat status.
COMMUNICATE
Revised EXPLANATION
After making sense of a core idea by engaging in science or engineering practices through the lens of crosscutting concepts, students revise their original explanations of a phenomenon.
EMPOWERMENT
Students may become heroes for the planet by participating in the Project Hero Pollinator Quest.