Plethora of Pollinators

Challenge
All pollinators visit flowers to get something out of them for themselves. This may be nectar, pollen, or both. During the visit, pollen lands on their body. Bumble bees, as well as other bee-like insects, have special structures on their bodies in which they store the pollen they have collected. I wonder how many pollinators can land on a flower before it tips over? Your challenge is to find out by creating and designing a model! The task is to design a prototype flower that will hold the most pollinators using paper plates, cardboard tubes, and scissors. Once you've built your flower prototype, you can test it out by placing marbles on it one at a time. Try to get the most marbles on the model before it topples over.

Your flower model design does have some criteria and constraints. Tape cannot be used at all. Only one paper plate is allowed per model. The marbles have to be placed one at time and more can’t be added until the marbles show no motion. The plate and tube can be altered, but the tube cannot be made shorter than its standard height. Marbles cannot be placed down the cardboard tube, unless if they remain on top of the plate inside the tube. You and your group should try to design a flower following these guidelines that holds the most pollinators.

Materials

• cardboard tubes (big or small)
• paper plates
• marbles
• scissors

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Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment a trial run with the materials before altering the plate or tube.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design.
3. For differentiation, adjust the size of the paper plates, type of paper plates, size of the cardboard tubes, pollinators to lighter or more stable items, or allow tape. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Allow the additions of roots and leaves onto the stem, if students think these structures will help in the overall design.
5. Connect to mathematics by having students graph the weight of the total number of marbles after each trial.
6. Connect to science and art by having students choose a certain flower structure to model their prototype after in shape and in color.
7. Connect to ELA by using texts on the topics of plant structure, pollination, or bees.