Schoolyard Flowers Experiment

Description: Students obsereve different colored flowers in the schoolyard and count the number and variety of animals that visit them over a period of several days. They then submit their information for others to compare and analyze.

Grade Levels: K-6 (Note: This experiment can be simplified or made more challenging depending on the developmental levels of your students. See Teacher Information.)

Approximate Time Involved: One 30-minute classroom planning session, 30 minutes to conduct the flower observations and list findings, (optional) 30 minutes to capture some of the observed animals in resealable plastic bags and/or take digital pictures, 30 minutes to identify and count animals, 20 minutes to enter data online, one or two 30-minute classroom sessions to discuss the results of the student observations and collected data, pose questions, and make suggestions for future flower observations and investigations. NOTE: It is preferred that you conduct the schoolyard flower experiment sometime between September 27 to October 15, 1999. This will allow students to compare the types and colors of flowers and the types, stages and sizes of animals captured at around the same dates. We also plan to repeat the experiment in the spring to allow students to compare their data at different seasons of the year.

Schoolyards, wetlands, fields, prairies, woodlands, gardens, and other outdoor areas are homes for a host of native and cultivated flowers. These flowers contain small animals--insects, spiders, mites, etc.--that you rarely see. A magnifying glass can be used to observe these small creatures so you can examine their numbers, life cycle stages, size and varieties. You can also shake the flower into a resealable plastic bag to examine animals that may have hidden inside the flower. At the same time, your students can also observe the different flowers to observe and note similar and different characteristics that they display.

Challenging Your Students to Be Problem Solvers:

This should become a team exercise where your student groups might each come up with a question, decide how they might find the answer to their question with a test, list the materials they would use , the number of each item, and a procedure for conducting the experiment. An excellent way to assess this activity is to have the teams repeat each other's experiment to see if they achieve the same results. This will also mirror the real world challenges facing a research scientist, who can only expect to gain recognition when others are able to replicate her/his experiment.

Here is an opportunity for your students to present flower observation experiment ideas and results to a professional in the field:

Student Instructions Available to download as a PDF file.

Needed Materials: Magnifying glass, animal identification charts or field guides (Golden Guides are inexpensive and fairly accurate identification books), felt-tip marker, clipchart and paper, several one-quart or larger resealable plastic bags, two pair of cotton gloves.

Safety Rule: It is likely that some stinging insects might be captured in this activity. The cotton gloves will help protect the hands of the person who must grasp the flower and shake the animals into a resealable plastic bag. NOTE: Play it safe and make sure that your school nurse has an Epi-pen and knows how to deliver a shot to a student who may have an allergic reaction to an insect sting.

Procedure :

Student Information: The following information will give you an idea of how you might conduct your flower observation experiment. If you are going to compare different colored flowers, be sure to study and observe the same number of each type of flower. If you are going to observe your flowers over several days, be sure that you observe them for the same amount of time each day. Be sure to conduct your experiment exactly the way you wrote your procedure, or be sure to change your procedure and redo your experiment. NOTE: Temperature is one thing that will be difficult to control in this experiment. However, from your experiments, you may be able to see if temperature has any impact on the number and variety of animals you find. Can you think of some other things you must do to make sure your experiment will be done correctly?

The reporting form for this experiment is set up so that you can determine the color and number of flowers you want to study and observe . NOTE: You may want to form several different groups and report your data first as a single group and then as an average of all the groups.

Steps to Conducting the Flower Observation Experiment

• 1. Choose the flowers to study and observe for your experiment. You may want to mark them in some way (a string or ribbon) so that you can observe them over several days.
• 2. Using your eyes and magnifying glass, carefully study and observe your flowers without touching them.
• 3. Write down all of the things that you have studied and observed (different animals, color of flower, shape and size of flower, etc.).
• 4. Carefully place a resealable plastic bag over the flower and then tilt it over, making sure the bag is as snug as possible around the stem. Shake the flower to see if any animals fall into the bag.
• 5. Carefully slip the flower out of the bag, being careful not to damage it or let the animals escape.
• 6. Write down all of the different things you were able to shake from the flower that you didn't already put on your list.
• 11. Once you have gathered all of the necessary information, release your animals back onto the flowers where you originally captured them.
• 12. After group and classroom discussions have occurred, login to enter your data.

Below is a list of questions that can be used to stimulate student discussions. If your students are at a developmental level where you are able to challenge their higher level thinking skills, then only present them with the first set of questions from each group below. Use the second list of questions as a way to stimulate thinking when you students seem unable to expand their knowledge on their own.

Examining Local Results

Discussion Questions that Require More Critical Thinking Skills:

• What did you find out from this experiment?
• What did you learn from doing this experiment?
• How would you design this experiment differently the next time?

Discussion Questions that Require Less Critical Thinking Skills

• What types of animals did you find in your flowers?
• Did different flowers produce different numbers and types of animals found?
• If the answer to the above question is "yes", what flower attracted the most animals? What flower attracted the most different animals?
• Did certain animals prefer certain kinds of flowers?
• Did the outside temperature have any impact on the number of animals found?
• What types of schoolyard animals are not likely to be found on a flower?
• If you also did the pitfall trap experiment, what comparisons can you make?
• Would you expect to find the same types of animals on your flowers if you conducted this experiment several times throughout the year? How could you test your predictions?

Examining Local and Online Results

Discussion Questions That Will Require Critical Thinking Skills to Compare Local Data to the Online Data of Others

• How did your results compare with the results of others?
• What did you learn when you compared what you found out from what others found out?
• What might have caused the online information to be different from your information?
• What changes would you now make in this experiment based on the information you now have from others?

General Discussion Questions that May Occur as a Result of Comparing Local Data to the Online Data of Others

• How would you compare the geographic locations of the schools who have provided online data? How might the location change the information that each school provided?
• How did the types of animals you found compare with those found by others?
• What things may have caused different animals to be found in other students' flowers?
• What similarities existed among those schools that found the same types and numbers of animals?
• Did others have the same success with the same colored flowers? If not, what could be the reason for the differences?
• Were the life cycles of the observed animals different at different geographic locations? If so, why do you think this occurred?

Performance and Multiple Choice Assessment Options

Critter Links

Entomological Society of America This site has a special "kids" page for insects.

Monarch Watch Participate in a migratory census of butterflies.

Iowa State Department of Entomology This is a good source for information on insects, including some insect recipes.

Children's Butterfly Site This butterfly site is maintained by the United States Geological Survey.

Butterflies, Moths, and Cool Bugs Browse this collection of insects from Havana Junior High's annual Adopt-An-Insect Project.

The Butterfly WebSite Learn more about the facinating world of butterflies.

Young Entomologists' Society, Inc. If you really like to explore the insect, spider, and minibeast world, check out this site and become an amateur entomologist.

Copyright, 2005

by Prism Press

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The text of this publication or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors.

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