Pollination Station …an interactive game about honey bees and flowers! Age group: This activity is best suited for children ages 6-­‐9, but could be used for older ages if academically appropriate. Timeframe: 15-­‐20 min. This can be used as a small group activity or a large group “opener.” Nutshell: Students play the role of honeybees collecting pollen for their hive, and learn how pollination happens in the process. Can be used as a cooperative activity to boot. Supplies: • 6-­‐8 plastic buckets (ideally outfitted with colorful “petals”) • 6-­‐8 smaller bowls, for collecting beans • 2 colors of dry beans – enough to fill each bucket with a 2” layer of beans • Several rolls of masking tape • Rope or flags to make a starting line • Flowers with easy-­‐to-­‐see pollen (optional) • Frame of honeycomb, ideally with pollen stored near edges (optional) • Pollen pieces from a hive for students to look at (optional) Set-­‐up: • Attached “petals” to buckets. Fill each with one color of beans. • In a large, open area, set up a playing field with bucket “flowers” scattered about the field. Try to set different bean colors next to each other. • Create a starting line/area so students don’t crowd the playing field before the game starts. Put the small bowls on the sides of the starting area to represent how bees store pollen near the side of their frame. • Tear off pieces of masking tape – one for each student, long enough to make a bracelet. Activity Description: Gather students in a learning circle and show them the frame of honeycomb with the pollen and/or the pieces of pollen. Talk about the two different items that bees collect from flowers: nectar and pollen. Pollen has many nutrients that bees need, including protein and vitamins. Bees mix pollen with honey to create “bee bread” that they feed to their young (larvae). Today we will be playing a game where we will play the part of bees collecting pollen. Show students the flowers and point out the pollen. Bring over two of the flower buckets to show students how each has “pollen” made of beans – show both colors. Ask students if they know how bees pick up pollen – they use special, sticky hooks on their legs (corbiculae) to hold the pollen while they are flying. This lesson was developed at the Goodman Youth Farm, a program of Community GroundWorks in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.communitygroundworks.org. Pollination Station …an interactive game about honey bees and flowers! We will be using a “sticky bracelet” to represent a bee’s pollen hooks in this game. Put a sticky bracelet on each student – an inside out piece of masking tape. Now explain the rules to the game: Students are all bees in a hive. They will go out into the field to collect pollen (beans) on their sticky bracelets – but they cannot use their hands! (Have them make fists.) They may visit as many flowers as they like until the queen bee calls them back to the hive. (Encourage students to visit multiple flowers.) Once they get back to the hive, they need to store their pollen – have students help each other remove beans from their bracelets into the little bowls. Designate one adult chaperone to be the “queen bee” – they will decide who gets to go out into the flower field at what time (have about 1/3 of the kids out collecting pollen at once, then say ‘come home bees!’) Play the game. Once every student has had a chance to collect pollen, gather all the little bowls together and admire all the pollen you collected. Note how students had to work together to collect that much pollen. Now bring over a few of the buckets where you can clearly see that different colors of beans have mixed together. See if students can notice anything different about the bucket now vs the beginning of the game. Ask them how the bean colors got mixed together. Relate this to how some pollen will fall off a bee as it goes from flower to flower – and flowers get pollinated. Have students help you sort out the beans back into the buckets – or put the beans back on their bracelets and take bracelets home and use the seeds for planting! If there is time, go look for bees collecting pollen in the garden. Questions and Teachable Moments: • A typical worker bee can carry up to half her body weight in pollen, and a typical hive will collect 100 lbs in a year! • Most bees go out in search of either pollen or nectar – a few bees will carry both at the same time. • Why can’t all the bees leave the hive at the same time? While some bees are out collecting pollen, what do you think the other bees are doing? • What needs to happen in order for a flower to be pollinated? What happens after a flower gets pollinated? • Leader’s note: When bees carrying pollen return to the hive, they actually have to unload it by themselves – but for this game, we still have students work together to represent how honeybees must work together in general for their hive to survive. This lesson was developed at the Goodman Youth Farm, a program of Community GroundWorks in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.communitygroundworks.org. Pollination Station …an interactive game about honey bees and flowers! Tips and Tricks: • Use adult chaperones to help distribute sticky bracelets, monitor the playing field, etc. • You may need to remind some students to visit multiple buckets. • Additional reading: http://www.honeybeesuite.com/pollen-­‐collection/ How to create flower “petals” to fit on a bucket: o Cut a strip of fabric about 2” wide, and long enough to wrap around the top of the bucket. Old jeans work well. o Attach Velcro to the ends of the fabric strip so it is easy to put on and take off the bucket. (Sticky back Velcro works fine.) o Cut out different colored petals with felt or old fabric. Attach 5-­‐6 of these to each fabric strip, with a sewing machine or hot glue. This lesson was developed at the Goodman Youth Farm, a program of Community GroundWorks in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.communitygroundworks.org.