We know that bees help pollinate a variety of plants. But how do they do it? In today’s hands-on activity, families will learn all about pollination.
Grade Range (suggested): 1-2
Materials
- Bag of chips with powder (Cheetos, Doritos, BBQ chips, Takis, etc.) or doughnuts with powder that will get stuck to your fingers when you grab the food.
Procedure
- Look at the following photo. What do you notice? Why do you think bees go to flowers? What do you think is stuck to the fur? [Images of honey bee on flower] Did you guess pollen? Did you notice the fuzzy body?
- You will use your fingers to model a bee moving from flower to flower. Make sure your hands are clean. With permission, get a bag of Cheetos (other options: Doritos, bbq chips, Takis, powdered doughnuts or any food with powder on the outside). Open the bag and reach down to get and eat a few chips. (Make sure not to lick your fingers!) What happened to your hand after you ate a few Cheetos?
- What did you want that got your hand covered in dust? Most bees get covered by pollen because they want the nectar, which is like a sweet juice in the flower, that the bees eat.
- Grab a napkin and wipe your hands. What happened to the napkin? When bees move from flower to flower they leave pollen behind, just like you left Cheeto dust on your face and napkin! Most bees don’t pollinate plants on purpose.
Click through to page 2 to access this activity writeup in Spanish.
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Great article! It’s wonderful to see how the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is engaging families in hands-on activities to learn about bee pollination. The use of Cheetos or powdered doughnuts to simulate pollen is a clever and interactive way to demonstrate how bees transfer pollen from flower to flower. Have you ever observed bees in your own garden or neighborhood? How do you think their pollination efforts contribute to the ecosystem?