Activities
Overview
My students will explore pollination and the multitude of problems bees are facing while they engage in the Design Thinking throughout the curriculum unit. My students will use Scratch coding, Makey Makey invention kit, and a Hummingbird robotics kit as well as craft materials (i.e. cardboard, paper, toilet paper rollers, pipe cleaners, etc.) throughout the curriculum unit. The creative design parts of the unit can be done without the technology component (Scratch and Hummingbird) and could instead use everyday materials.
First, we will learn about plant parts and how pollination occurs (objective 4.2). Then the students will learn about the problems plaguing bees, particularly the honey bee. There are many. Through the unit they will connect to objective 4.3, which explores ecosystems and human impact. I envision several small projects as my new fourth graders begin to learn how to use Scratch such as a diagram of the flower parts using the Makey Makey and the voice recording feature of Scratch to name the part and describe it. The students may make a landscape background and move a bee from flower to flower with Scratch. As the unit progresses the students will design a bee and make it move and buzz. For the culminating project, students will have to design a project using the iterative design process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test) to develop a potential solution to the problem facing the bees. They can make an innovative product or a model of an ecosystem that illustrates positive human impact. Again, these projects can be completed without technology using arts and craft supplies. No matter what learning materials are used, the students will not only learn Design Thinking, but also processes (including the environment, signals, weather components, access to water, flora, and pollination) of bee survival, hive building/selection and pollination.
Day 1: Students will use Scratch and add a background landscape picture. They will add a “Sprite” of a bee and make the bee move from flower to flower with the “glide” block.
Day 2-3: The students will make a drawing of a flower and label the parts. Then they will add brad fasteners to the parts of the flower and use a Makey Makey and Scratch so that when the Makey Makey alligator clip touches the brad, a voice recording of the name of the part and the function will play.
Day 4: The students will engage in an inquiry lesson about pollination. Students will use microscopes, prepare slides, and observe how a grain of pollen germinates. The students will have to make observations and try to figure out what is happening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su6fxJQ5q3o
Day 5: The students will view a Google Slide with a picture of an ecosystem. They will have to circle the living and non-living pollinators in the landscape scene.
Day 6: The teacher will provide flowers that the students will dissect to identify the different parts.
Day 7: The teacher will explain the pollination process. The students will use Design Thinking to design a 3D flower using craft supplies. The model will have to include the pollen tube and seeds in the ovule (see suggested materials list).
Day 8: Students will work through the Design Thinking and create a prototype of their pollinated flower that forms seeds.
Day 9: Students will write an explanation of the pollination process.
Day 10: The teacher will provide instruction about the different types of native bees.
Day 11: A local beekeeper will visit and tell the students about honey bees. The students will complete a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting honey bees and native bees.
Day 12 -15: The students will use Scratch and the Hummingbird robotics kits to create a bee that moves. It should also buzz or vibrate (bumble bee).
Day 16: The class will go out and assess the school yard for potential areas to create a pollinator area. Once they locate an area, they will look for food sources, nesting materials, and count any pollinators.
Day 17: Students will select that name/position of the person their group will interview. Then they will develop questions to ask in the interview
Day 18: Interview people via Zoom for 15 minutes. Then the class will jigsaw and share the information from each interview. Interviewees will include the principal, the parent in charge of playground clean-up, a local master gardener, a member of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).
Days 19 – 23: Students will design their ecosystem
Days 24-25: Students will share their ecosystem
Days 26-30: The class will go into the school yard to the area that they previously assessed. With support from parent volunteers, will create pollinator gardens to attract blue orchard bees (BOBS) which are wonderful pollinators and do not sting. They will include aspects from the ecosystem that they designed to help the bees. Later in the spring students will conduct data collection to count the pollinators to see if their work was beneficial for the bees.
Activity 1: Design a Pollinated Flower
Students will use the Design Thinking Process to create a 3D model of a flower (Day 7) while working in small groups (if permitted with COVID). They will include all the parts of the flower, the pollen tube, and seeds in the ovule. Materials will be provided including cupcake pipettes that when the bulb is cut off will look like an ovule and can hold beans that may be used to represent the seeds. Students may come up with different ways to represent the parts of the flower, that is a part of the Design Thinking Process.
Activity 2: Design a Bee
On Days 12-15 students will design and create a bee using craft supplies. If available, the students will use Scratch, Makey Makey invention kits, and a Hummingbird robotics kit to make the bee move and buzz. If the technology is not available, students can make a simple circuit with a buzzer, and create a lever or a pop-up style way to make the bee move.
Activity 3: Culminating Activity
The culminating activity has multiple parts and takes place from Days 19- 30. The students will have to use the design thinking process to create an ideal ecosystem for bees that includes their innovations for positive human impact to help the bees. The students can use either a cookie sheet or a cafeteria tray as the base for their ecosystem. They will use the craft materials to engineer it. They may wish to use Scratch coding, Makey Makey invention kits and the Hummingbird robotics kit.
Once the ecosystems are designed the students will make a presentation including a media message to promote ways to help bees.
The final part will be to bring their design thinking to the real world by improving an area of the school yard to attract Blue Orchard Bees.
Comments: