Matching Flowers and Pollinators

If we’re studying flowers and their pollinators, it’s easy to stop at the “Remember/Understand” level. You might have a question like this:

Match each pollinator with the flower that best suits it.

Students would match up:

• monarch butterflies and milkweed
• bats and saguaro cactus
• bees and sunflowers.

So that’s a Remember/Understand level. It’s a BOB (Bottom of Bloom’s). It’s ok to start here, but we need to aim higher. A friend of mine took this to the ‘Synthesize’ level and asked her students to create a new flower which would attract a new pollinator.

Now we have:

1. Match pollinators and flowers.
2. Create a new pollinator and a new flower.

At this point, we have the bottom of Bloom’s and the top of Bloom’s, but what about that all-important Analyze level? (Which I wrote more about here.)

Let’s Adapt An Existing Critter

First, I’d add this question to the Synthesize step:

Which pollinator will your new creature be based on?

So rather than creating a completely new creature from scratch, students are starting with a bee, making changes, and explaining the effects of those changes. Yes, this is my “make a change and explain” technique. It’s a scaffolded way to reach Synthesize. And it builds Analyze in because students are naturally comparing and contrasting the new creature with the original creature.

Now we have:

1. Match pollinators and flowers.
2. Pick a pollinator. Make at least one change. Give your new creature a name.
3. Explain how that change would affect the flower this creature pollinates.

Drop Back To Analyze

Then, once students reach Synthesize and create their new pollinator and flower, we have an opportunity to go back to Analyze. I’ll ask students to create a pollinator garden using at least two other students’ creations. They have two choices:

• Design a garden that attracts a variety of pollinators
• Design a specialized garden that attracts similar pollinators

They might end up with a garden that only draws in stink-loving flies and beetles. Or maybe their garden attracts bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. Either way, they are comparing and contrasting with their friends’ creations.

Another Analyze Opportunity

Then I’d have another analyze step! After viewing all of their classmates’ gardens, each student will give their garden an award, something that emphasizes the uniqueness of their garden. In order to do this, they are naturally going to be comparing and contrasting their garden with the rest of the class’ gardens. Put on an award show, create trophies, do whatever you’d like!

In the end, you (the teacher) will be delighted by the cleverness of your students. Run this task 10 years in a row, and students will still be surprising you!

The Sequence

So we’d end up with something like this:

1. Match pollinators and flowers.
2. Pick a pollinator. Make at least one change. Give your new creature a name.
3. Explain how that change would affect the flower this creature pollinates.
4. Design a garden using two students’ pollinators. The garden can either attract similar pollinators or a variety of different pollinators.
5. Browse the other gardens. Create an award which emphasizes the uniqueness of your garden.

It’s quite a leap from:

1. Match pollinators and flowers.
2. Create a new pollinator and a new flower.

For Byrdseed.TV Folks

I’ve got a three-part, video version of this lesson complete with worksheets over at Byrdseed.TV!