Build a Flower
Curriculum Activity

Victorian Curriculum Links

Science Understanding

Scientific understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to inform personal and community decisions and to solve problems that directly affect people’s lives (VCSSU073)

The growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment (VCSSU075)

Energy from a variety of sources can be used to generate electricity; electric circuits enable this energy to be transferred to another place and then to be transformed into another form of energy (VCSSU081)

Science Inquiry Skills

Construct and use a range of representations, including tables and graphs, to record, represent and describe observations, patterns or relationships in data (VCSIS085)

Communicate ideas and processes using evidence to develop explanations of events and phenomena and to identify simple cause-and-effect relationships (VCSIS088)

Activity Description

Flower biology is explored in this activity to provide students insight into the role of a pollinator in plant life cycles. Specifically, bee pollination is investigated and allows students to explore issues and problems related to Primary Industry.

In this hands-on interactive STEM activity students work individually to produce a paper representation of a flower. Parts of the flower are labeled using a key.

Key Concepts

  • Global Warming

  • Greenhouse Gases

  • Renewable energy

Key Learning Intentions

After this activity, students should be able to:

  • Apply skills in analysis, synthesis, evaluation and explanation to their writing and speaking.

  • Incorporate source materials into their speaking and writing (for example, interviews, news articles, encyclopedia information).

  • Write and speak in the content areas using the technical vocabulary of the subject accurately.

  • Recognise, express and defend a point of view orally in an articulate manner and in writing.

Suggestions for assessment

Posters/Reports: Review the students' poster presentation and summary document to gauge their understanding of the concepts.

Instructions

Materials

  • Scissors

  • Pen/pencil

  • Glue

  • Handout 1: Build a flower image 1 (download)

  • Handout 2: Build a flower image 2 (download)

Tune In

Students explore the biology of flowers to learn about structures and their functions. The role these play in plant reproduction is essential to provide students with the knowledge they require to connect this with pollination – in particular by bees.

Activity
Assembly:

  1. Read the following instructions carefully. Fill in the KEY given on page 3 before building the flower.

  2. Find the flower’s NECTARIES (1).  These structures make sugary nectar which insects eat.  Shade them lightly in pencil and name them in the key.

  3. Find part with tab AB.  The male organs are called STAMENS (2).  They make male sex cells called POLLEN GRAINS (3).  Shade 2 and 3 yellow and enter them in your key.

  4. The stamens are attached to the RECEPTACLE (4). Shade this dotted region green and enter it in the key.

  5. Find the part with tab EF.  The female organ is called the CARPEL (5).   Shade it green and enter it in the key.

  6. Find the parts with tabs CD and LM.  A carpel has a sticky top, the STIGMA (6), a long neck, the STLYE (7), and an OVARY (8).  Shade these dotted regions green in both diagrams and enter them in the key.

  7. The ovary contains two eggs, the OVULES (9).  Leave them white and enter them in your key.

  8. Find the part with tab JK.  Shade the dotted part of the BEE (10) brown, and all the other parts, except the wings, yellow.  Name the bee in your key.

  9. Colour the POLLEN BASKET (11) yellow.  Also shade in yellow any other pollen grains sticking to the insect.

  10. Find the part with tab LM.  Colour the POLLEN TUBE (12) yellow and name it in the key.

  11. The PETALS (13) should be brightly coloured to attract insects. Shade them pink and add them to the key.

  12. The SEPALS (14) protect the unopened flower.  Shade them green and enter them in the key.

  13. From now on each part will be known by its tab letters. Cut out each part carefully, following the dotted guidelines around it.

  14. Fold part AB along the solid tab line to form a tab that folds towards the coloured side.

  15. Glue tab AB onto box AB so that A lands exactly on top of A and B on top of B.

  16. Repeat for parts CD, EF and GH so that each part of the flower it in place and ready for pollination.

  17. Glue JK and LM by their tabs to their boxes.

  18. Fold parts JK And LM at their solid tab lines so that they are lying up and out of the flower for the meantime, with their coloured surfaces out of sight. 

Pollination and Fertilisation:

  1. Lift part GH off to see the inside of the flower.

  2. Similarly, lift off part EF to see the unfertilised egg inside the carpel.

  3. Bring in part JK to reveal the base. Pollination now occurs as pollen passes from the bee to the stigma.

  4. Exchange part CD for part LM.  Pollen tubes grow down from the pollen grains and fertilise the eggs, forming seeds.

Reflection Questions

  1. Name the reproductive structures of the flower and describe how these are involved in pollination and reproduction.

  2. Explain pollination. Explore and list some different ways plants are pollinated.

  3. Explain the importance of pollination to our primary producers, in terms of our food production, the type of foods we have access to and healthy eating habits.

  4. What are some things that can have a negative impact on pollination? What can we do about this?

Problem Card #12: Bee Pollination

Downloadable Resources: