Oscar was very ready to eat lunch. Standing in the cafeteria line seemed to be taking FOREVER! The smell of the hot food was overpowering. Oscar accidentally forgot to eat breakfast as he ran out the door to make the bus in time that morning. After what seemed like an eternity Oscar was handed his lunch tray and headed to a table with some of his friends.
On the menu for the day was squash casserole and a side salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. Dessert was applesauce. Oscar was ready to dive in. Just as he grabbed his fork he heard a faint buzzing noise that seemed to be getting louder and louder.
“Beeeeee!!!!!” screamed Allison, who was sitting next to Oscar.
The next thing you know, the whole table was jumping up and running around, swatting and panicking. Oscar guarded his lunch from being overturned. He wasn’t about to let some silly bug keep him from eating.
Suddenly a booming voice interrupted the chaos. It was the principal! “Everyone, take a seat. It is just a bee. Let it be.” The principal then chuckled at her little joke before continuing, “if it wasn’t for animals that pollinated plants, you wouldn’t have any of that lunch today. None of it. Now calm down and the bee will go on its way.”
Oscar chewed on his lunch while chewing on what the principal had to say. Hmmm… just how important is pollination? Was it true that he wouldn’t have any lunch if plants weren’t pollinated? Oscar wanted to know more. He asked his science teacher and this is what Oscar learned.
Pollination is necessary for flowering plants to make fruit and seeds and can happen with the help of wind and animals. When people think of pollinators they often think of honey bees, but any animal that transfers pollen is in fact a pollinator! This includes thousands of insects that wander from flower to flower, but just don’t get the credit bees and butterflies do.
How important is pollination? About three fourths of the food crops we eat must be pollinated by animals! Unfortunately habitat loss, harmful chemicals (pesticides) and even parasites are leading to a decline in pollinators worldwide.
Oscar had so many questions about this process but really wanted to uncover what was going on at his school. How could he help?
Oscar asked his teacher if more flowers in his schoolyard would mean there would be more insects that could pollinate flowers. He convinced his teacher to create a class project. After all, this question could be answered scientifically by making observations with numbers. The class would go outside and observe the number of insects on or traveling to flowers and compare those observations with the number of flowers they counted.
Oscar is so excited about this project- he wants your class to bee involved too!
On the menu for the day was squash casserole and a side salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. Dessert was applesauce. Oscar was ready to dive in. Just as he grabbed his fork he heard a faint buzzing noise that seemed to be getting louder and louder.
“Beeeeee!!!!!” screamed Allison, who was sitting next to Oscar.
The next thing you know, the whole table was jumping up and running around, swatting and panicking. Oscar guarded his lunch from being overturned. He wasn’t about to let some silly bug keep him from eating.
Suddenly a booming voice interrupted the chaos. It was the principal! “Everyone, take a seat. It is just a bee. Let it be.” The principal then chuckled at her little joke before continuing, “if it wasn’t for animals that pollinated plants, you wouldn’t have any of that lunch today. None of it. Now calm down and the bee will go on its way.”
Oscar chewed on his lunch while chewing on what the principal had to say. Hmmm… just how important is pollination? Was it true that he wouldn’t have any lunch if plants weren’t pollinated? Oscar wanted to know more. He asked his science teacher and this is what Oscar learned.
Pollination is necessary for flowering plants to make fruit and seeds and can happen with the help of wind and animals. When people think of pollinators they often think of honey bees, but any animal that transfers pollen is in fact a pollinator! This includes thousands of insects that wander from flower to flower, but just don’t get the credit bees and butterflies do.
How important is pollination? About three fourths of the food crops we eat must be pollinated by animals! Unfortunately habitat loss, harmful chemicals (pesticides) and even parasites are leading to a decline in pollinators worldwide.
Oscar had so many questions about this process but really wanted to uncover what was going on at his school. How could he help?
Oscar asked his teacher if more flowers in his schoolyard would mean there would be more insects that could pollinate flowers. He convinced his teacher to create a class project. After all, this question could be answered scientifically by making observations with numbers. The class would go outside and observe the number of insects on or traveling to flowers and compare those observations with the number of flowers they counted.
Oscar is so excited about this project- he wants your class to bee involved too!
Can you answer the questions below?
- About how much of the food we eat is pollinated by some kind of animal? Write the answer as a fraction.
- Pollinators provide a valuable ecosystem service, but their numbers are going down. List 3 reasons.
- What question is Oscar, and your class, trying to answer?
- Form a hypothesis in response to the question (in #3) above.
For more information about pollinators visit fws.gov/pollinators/