5th grade students work together in teams to create an ecosystem to support Pacific Northwest pollinators.

This is a Pre-K to K lesson about bees and how they help our food grow by pollinating plants. The lesson includes Keynote slides identifying bees from other insects, repetition of the word pollination, a video of the author with backyard bees, and a worksheet assessment.Students will learn how to spot a bee vs other flying insects, what pollination means, what a beehive looks like, and will see bees pollinating flowers and carrying pollen to their hive.

This lesson focuses on the process of pollination. The learning objectives include learning the anatomy and physiology of flowers, the ecology of pollination, and a focus on plants as essential players in the natural world. There are no prerequisites for the lesson. The lesson will take 1½ hours, or 2 class periods or more -- depending on the areas teachers want to spend more time on or how far in depth they want their students to go. Materials needed are colored modeling clay, 8 or more assorted fresh flowers or pictures of flowers, preferably native to the local ecosystem. Dissecting microscopes or magnifying glasses are great for examining the fresh flowers, but not necessary. Additionally, pictures of different subjects/objects amongst plants are needed for the last activity. Activities for the breaks include assessing student knowledge of flowers by model building, and examining flowers to determine and distinguish between the pollination anatomy of different flowers.

In this instructional video, the Hogle Zoo explains how to use the lesson plan "Pollination Station."

The goal of this activity is to give students a better understanding of the act of pollination and what pollination produces. It will also provide them with a sense of the adaptations that animals and plants have to help with the pollination process.