Through a role-playing relay race children will learn how bees spread pollen from flower to flower, collect nectar to make honey, and communicate with other bees.

Primary Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to name two things that bees get from flowers – nectar and pollen. They will also be able to describe what bees do with nectar and pollen as well as how bees communicate to other bees in a hive.

1. What do bees pick up when they are visiting flowers?
2. What do they do with the nectar?
3. What do they do with the pollen?
4. How do the bees help the flowers?
5. How do the flowers help the bees?
6. How do bees tell other bees where there are flowers?

Additional Learning Outcomes
Why do bees make honey? Why do flowers produce nectar? How do bees carry the pollen?

Assessed QCC Standards

Grade: K-5
Science
Inquiry
4
Topic: Activity/Tools
Standard: Actively engages in the learning process via hands-on/ minds-on science activities. Uses appropriate tools to collect and analyze data and solve problems.

Grade: 2
Science
Life Science
18
Topic: Ecology: Interdependence of Life
Standard: Recognizes how plants and animals interact and depend on one another. Illustrates the many ways plants and animals interact (pollination, shelter, and seed dispersal).

Non-assessed QCC Standards

Grade: 2
Science
Life Science
17
Topic: Ecology: Interdependence of Life
Standard: Identifies the many feeding relationships possible among various plants and animals. Illustrates food chains and food webs and predator-prey relationships.

Grade: K
Science
Life Science
12
Topic: The Living World: Living Things
Standard: Recognizes basic needs of most living things. Compares common needs between a plant and animal (such as sunshine, air, food, and water).

Total Duration
20 Minutes

Materials and Equipment

1. Pollen tokens: small strips of cardstock or other material that is all one color. There should be no less than 2 pollen tokens per student.
2. Nectar tokens: similar to pollen tokens but a different color. There should also be no less than 2 nectar tokens per student.
3. One #10 tin can (or cardboard box or similar container) per team to represent the honeycomb
   • The honeycomb container should be empty at the beginning of the game
4. Two #10 tin cans (with pictures of flowers on them) per team to represent flowers
   • Each flower should have pollen and nectar tokens in it – there should be no less than one pollen token and one nectar token per each child on a team.
5. One bee puppet per team.

Procedure

Step One: Background information - duration 5 minutes.

Review the following information with the students.
Bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers for their own use as food. They use the nectar to make honey and some pollen is used to provide important nutrients to young bees or brood. While the bees are gathering food they scatter pollen thereby pollinating many flowers. Flowers produce sweet nectar as an incentive for bees to visit and to therefore pollinate. When bees leave the hive and find a nice patch of flowers they need to communicate that with the other bees in the hive. They do this by performing a “waggle” dance which tells the other bees the direction and distance to the flowers.

In this activity students will become bees and will fly from their hive to flowers in the field where they will collect nectar and pollen, pollinate a flower, fly back to their hive and communicate with other bees by doing a waggle dance.

Step Two: Demonstrate the rules - duration 5 minutes.

Break the students up into two or more even teams (the number of students in a team will determine the length of the activity).

Ask the teams to stand behind a starting line and place the honeycomb container at the beginning of the line. This is where the bees will deposit all of the nectar and pollen that they collect in the field.

Place a flower container with tokens half way across the running area in front of each team. Place a second flower at the far end of the running area in front of each team. See attached Playing Field Diagram.

Explain the rules: The runner holds the bee puppet while running. Each runner in turn must go to the first flower bucket and pick out one pollen token and one nectar token. The runner must then go to the second flower bucket and deposit one pollen token in the bucket. The runner must then pick up one pollen token and one nectar token from that container. The runner now has two nectar tokens and one pollen token. The runner runs back to the hive and places the tokens in the honeycomb container. Before passing the bee puppet to the next runner in line the current runner must do a waggle dance that includes at least one total rotation of the body. Then the puppet is passed to the next student and the previous runner sits at the end of the line.

Lesson Materials to be Attached:
Title: Playing Field Diagram.

Step Three: The Race - duration 10 minutes.

Start the race. Encourage the kids to all run the race even if one of the teams have finished. When all teams have finished the race look in the honeycomb and the flower containers and analyze the contents.

Assessment:

Verbally review the activity with the students and have the group answer the following questions:
1) What do bees pick up when they are visiting flowers?
2) What do they do with the nectar?
3) What do they do with the pollen?
4) How do the bees help the flowers?
5) How do the flowers help the bees?
6) How do bees tell other bees where there are flowers?

Extension:

This activity generally needs little modification because even if the concepts are understood the excitement of running a relay race keeps students engaged. The activity can be slightly modified for students that already understand the concepts by making the racecourse longer or by including more flowers. Different kinds of flowers can be included making it necessary for runners to match like flowers.

Remediation:

This activity can be simplified for younger audiences by focusing on the pollination of flowers and just using pollen tokens. Runners pick up one pollen token and deliver it to another flower before returning to the hive. The first round can be simplified and the nectar tokens can be added in additional rounds of the game.

Playing Field Diagram