Saturday SAVY, Week 3, Plants and Pollen (1st-2nd)
Our Agricultural Engineers were very industrious today. We reviewed what we have learned about pollination and pollinators, as well as how Integrated Pest Control uses natural systems to control pests. We also then revisited the story of Mariana Becomes a Butterfly and how she solved the problem of her Ohelo plant not producing berries by inventing a hand pollinator.
The students then learned about the Engineering Design Process, and we identified which of the steps Mariana used when building her hand pollinator. Students then followed the Engineering Design Process steps of Ask (Identifying the problem to be solved), Research (Gathering information), Imagine (Brainstorming ideas), Plan (Deciding on a solution and designing it), Create (Building the solution), and Improve when creating their hand pollinators.
We designed hand pollinators for models of four different flowers, the Bucket Orchid, Dutchman’s Pipe, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and the Poppy. Our Agricultural Engineers used a variety of materials to reach and transport pollen and overcame the different challenges each of the flowers posed for accessing the pollen (we used baking soda).
Students presented their final hand pollinator design to the class, explaining what materials they used and why they chose those materials. They also explained the changes they made when they went through the “Improve” step and whether those changes worked.
After presentations we discussed how different goals for different model flowers had different hand pollinator designs. Finally, we reflected on how they had used their knowledge of pollination, materials and their properties, and the Engineering Design Process to design and improve a hand pollinator for a model flower.
It was a delight working with our creative and hard-working Agricultural Engineers over the past three Saturdays. Thank you for the opportunity to be inspired by these bright minds.
Questions to ask your Agricultural Engineer about today:
- How did Mariana from the story solve the problem of her Ohelo plant not producing berries?
- What do you remember about the Engineering Design Process?
- Was your hand pollinator able to pick up and drop off pollen?
- What parts of your hand pollinator design worked well? What would you change about your hand pollinator design? Why?
- Do you think that the hand pollinator that you designed would work on a different model flower? Why or why not?