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Course: Middle school physics - NGSS > Unit 5
Lesson 1: Unit 2 activitiesActivity: How do bees pick up pollen in flowers?
Make science come alive in your classroom with this free hands-on activity aligned to middle school NGSS standards.
Activity: How do bees pick up pollen in flowers?
If you’ve ever observed a bee up close, you may have noticed that she was hairy! You may have also seen tiny yellow pollen grains stuck to her hairs. Bees are essential pollinators who make it possible for us to have fruits such as berries, apples, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Pollen sticks to a bee when she lands in a flower to drink sweet nectar. Then, when she lands in another flower, some of the pollen grains drop off. This can pollinate the flower, allowing the plant to produce fruit. But how do bees pick up pollen in the first place? In this activity, students will use tape, balloons, and their knowledge of forces and fields to develop a comic strip model of this phenomenon.
Overview
This activity is designed to be completed in two 45-minute class periods, with additional time required for follow-up creative projects. The activity consists of the following parts:
- Setting the stage—Students review the fundamentals of electric forces and fields. (10 minutes)
- Investigation (Part 1)—Students produce charged pieces of tape and observe their behaviors. Students use their knowledge of electric forces to draw conclusions about the net charge on the tapes. (20 minutes)
- Investigation (Part 2)—Students charge a balloon and use a string to map the resulting electric field. (15 minutes)
- Let's get creative!—Students apply their knowledge to create a comic strip showing how electric forces and fields help bees pollinate flowers. (45 minutes).
- Keep creating!—Students can choose from additional project ideas. Each project encourages students to combine scientific knowledge with creativity to produce something new.
Download the worksheets and get started today!
You can print out this activity or upload it to a digital classroom.
- Student activity guide (8 page worksheet)
- Teacher guide (step-by-step instructions)
NGSS performance expectations
MS-PS2-3. Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
MS-PS2-5. Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
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are the flowers more charged or are the bees hair is more charged.(0 votes)
I think the flower(0 votes)
that is a cute bee(7 votes)
Good Question I dont Know(3 votes)
That's one fluffy bee(2 votes)- where do bees suck in nectar?(2 votes)
Inside the flower.(1 vote)
- How much energy does a bee have in their hair?(1 vote)
- Bees, like all living organisms, do not store energy in their hair. Instead, they store energy in the form of chemical energy, primarily in the form of sugars derived from nectar collected from flowers. This energy is used by bees to fuel their metabolic processes, including flight, foraging, and thermoregulation.
The hairs on a bee's body serve various purposes, such as aiding in pollen collection, providing insulation, and assisting in flight stability. While the hairs may trap some pollen grains or small particles, they do not store significant amounts of energy in themselves.
So, to answer your question, bees do not store energy in their hair. Instead, they obtain energy from the food they consume, primarily nectar and pollen, which they convert into usable energy through metabolic processes.(2 votes)
- The flowers tend to crease down by the gravity and the pull increases and night!!(1 vote)
Which charge is more powerful the bee or the flower?(1 vote)
do bees use friction or do they just stick to them(1 vote)- are flowers more charged than bee hair?(1 vote)
