Junior Secondary School Activities
Curriculum links
Science Curriculum Levels 3-4: Living World
- Begin to group plants, animals and other living things into science-based classifications.
Students are working at levels 3-4 of the Curriculum when they can classify their insects into species, and also group species into insect families (for example: hymenoptera or bees/wasps, diptera or flies, coleoptera or beetles, and lepidoptera or butterflies and moths).
Science Curriculum Level 5: Living World
- Investigate the interdependence of living things in an ecosystem.
Students are working at level 5 of the Curriculum when they can explain insect visitor patterns at a species of flower in terms of 'attractiveness'. The link that needs to be made is that insects need the nectar and/or pollen for food, while the plants need pollen carried from the anther to the stigma. The discussion of the investigation should mention the interdependence that exists in terms of advantages to flowers and insect OR the tradeoffs involved in ensuring resources are not wasted (eg. minimising nectar production while still achieving pollination, or not having to travel too far to get good food).
Floral visitor survey
- Ask students “If you were to go outside now and collect insects visiting flowers, what would you find?” The typical prediction made by students is "bees". Show how insects can be captured in a clear wide-mouth screw-top jar by placing the jar over a flower and closing the lid over the flower and insect. Get students to do an initial collection of insects – put in freezer overnight to kill humanely. Does initial collection match prediction?
- Use the 'Pinning insects' handout to get class to pin and identify insects with teacher assistance.
- Spend a lesson on insect diversity – get students to draw pinned insects, labeling main parts useful in identification. Use learning circles for reinforcement. Students should learn main insect species present. Use What is this Bug or the Flower visitors in New Zealand to assist with insect identification.
Challenge
- Group insects into Hymenoptera (bees/wasps), Diptera (flies), Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies/moths).
- Come up with a question – eg. 'Are native bees more common on a native Hebe than flies?' Make 'near instantaneous counts' of insects visiting flowers. Approach plants slowly, casting no shadow on the plant. Count all insects in a 50 x 50 cm square and count number of flowers – repeat every 10 minutes to get 5 samples per group.
- Turn into bar graphs and compare between groups. Discuss reasons for results. From here, students can research the relationship between flowers and their pollinators, and explain their results in terms of what they have learnt about the interdependence between flowers and their pollinators.