Lesson Plan #4 Title: Pollination Exploration

Performance Objective 4: When given a list of materials, criteria, and constraints, students will

simulate pollination. Students will be able to identify the pollinator that is being simulated as

well as identify one additional pollinator.

Resources or Materials Needed: SmartBoard, four handouts on criteria and constraints, two

small cups per group, two cotton balls per group, Jell-O powder for each group and a pipe

cleaner for each group (four groups total), pencils, thirteen coloring pages of a butterfly printed

from the Quiver website that contain the special QR code (twelve for students, one as teacher

example), twelve iPads, colored pencils or crayons

Time: 80 minutes

Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities: (5 minutes)

• Pass the handout with criteria and constraints to each table (Appendix D), one handout

per table

• Project video demonstration of the experiment on YouTube on the SmartBoard

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zkMavl0f7M&feature=youtu.be

Step 2: Content Presentation: (10 minutes)

• Ask students if they have any questions pertaining to the video they just watched.

• Project the handout of the criteria and constraints onto the SmartBoard so students can

look at the SmartBoard or look at the handout on their table.

• Pass out the required materials for each group.

• Review expectations for the exploration:

o Generate a simple problem

o Creating multiple prototypes and conducting tests

 o Staying on task

Step 3: Learner Participation: (45 minutes)

• Students will work collaboratively on an experiment intended to simulate pollination.

The goal of the exploration is for the students to be able to move Jell-O powder from

one cotton ball to another using only a pipe cleaner to simulate a bee pollinating a

flower. Students must then brainstorm another possible pollination scenario using their

materials.

• All students must actively be working.

Step 4: Assessment: (0 minutes)

• Students will be graded using a rubric (see Appendix E). The students will be graded on

whether they defined a simple problem, generated and compared multiple possible

solutions to meet criteria and constraints, planned and carried out fair tests with

prototypes, stayed on task, and participated.

o Rubric to be completed through teacher observation.

Step 5: Follow-Through Activities: (20 minutes)

• Once the students have completed their exploration, they may retrieve a butterfly

coloring page (Appendix F). Students can spend time coloring their butterflies.

o When each student has colored a butterfly, use an iPad and the teacher sample of

the butterfly page to model how to open the Quiver application and scan their

coloring page in order to see the butterfly become a three-dimensional figure.

Lesson Plan Summary: The main learning theory in this lesson plan is Constructivism. Students

are working collaboratively in groups to create a simulation of pollination. (Cooper 1993).

Another learning theory present is Cognitivism. Students were allowed to watch a demonstration
of the video prior to completing it, in order to help students better understand what they needed

to do (Cooper 1993). There are also elements of Behaviorism through the use of the Quiver

application. Students are rewarded with a fun activity once they finish their experiments (Khalil

& Elkhider 2016).