Grade 5 · Unit 2: The life cycle of flowering plants

Investigating pollination

Which flowers do insects like best?

Asking a question

Scientists ask questions about pollination. Do bees prefer blue or yellow flowers? Do more insects visit in the morning or afternoon? We can answer these questions with careful observation.

A good scientific question can be tested with an investigation and answered with measurements.

Paper flower test

Make paper flowers of different colours with a drop of sugar water in the middle. Put them in the garden and count the insects that visit each colour. Keep everything the same except the colour.

Using paper flowers lets you change just the colour. Real flowers also differ in scent, size and nectar, which would make the test unfair.

Pollinating by hand

Some farmers in Bangladesh pollinate pumpkin and gourd flowers by hand. They use a brush or a male flower to move pollen to the female flower. This is called hand pollination. It gives more fruits when there are few insects.

Vanilla flowers are pollinated by hand on farms around the world, because their natural pollinator, a kind of bee, lives only in Mexico.

Finding patterns

Put your results in a table, then a bar chart. Look for a pattern: “More insects visited yellow flowers than blue ones.” Use evidence from your results in your conclusion.

Bar charts are good for comparing separate groups, like flower colours. Line graphs are better for showing change over time.

What I learnt

• I can plan an investigation about pollination.
• I can find patterns in results and use them as evidence.