Two weeks ago I had the final official class of the trimester with the 3rd and 4th graders. I will be going back to their classroom to talk about the pollination study after we are done, and I am always stopping by to check on the vernal pools and tadpoles.
My goal was to make sure that the kids were ready for our first field trip. Since we had talked about pollination the week before, I asked the kids to go through their notes and summarize on a piece of paper the parts of a flower and the process of pollination. I was very pleased to see how much they knew! Everyone had the male and female structures of the flower on their drawing, and they were talking about sperm/pollen traveling from one flower to another. Most kids were also able to make the connection between pollination and seed production. After giving kids enough time to think about what they had learned the week before, we had a class discussion about the process of pollination, and the importance of pollinators.
After this discussion we were ready to talk about the pollination experiment that they will be conducting. During our first field trip each kid will choose 3 individuals of the same species (specie to be determined). One individual will be left alone and marked as "control", another individual will be artificially pollinated by the kids, and the third individual will be caged (cage will be built with chicken wire covered with bridal veil). I asked the kids to draw the experiment and predict results. Predictions included comparisons between the relative number of seeds and plant appearance.
In addition to conducting the experiment, we will have a guided tour of Jepson Prairie Reserve. This reserve protects one of the few remaining vernal pool habitats in California. Since this will be a unique opportunity for the kids, I talked to them about conservation and asked them to come up with a few questions that they might be interested in asking the docent during the field trip.
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