Sustainable Food Systems

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Pollination

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Welcome to Change is Simple’s Online Learning Platform!

Overview: Today’s topic is pollination! We will be learning about the structure of flowers and how important flowers are for bees! We will be going outside to find flowers in our own area so we can draw them at home. Then we will be labeling the flower parts learned in the video.

Grade Level:  K-6 **For grade 4+ do the bonus activity in Activity Two!

Theme: Earth Systems, Sustainable Food Systems

Supervision needed? Yes

Essential Questions: 

  • What does pollination mean?

  • How do flowers play a role in bees’ lives?

Materials Needed:

  • Sheet of Paper

  • Colored Pencils

  • Camera

Standards:

 

step 1: Introduction video

 

step 2: find & draw

Now it is time to get outside and take a picture of a flower around where you live! If you do not have any flowers where you live, choose an image online of your favorite flower.

1. Take a picture of it and then head back inside to draw out the flower! Flowers are an incredibly important part of our pollination process. 

*** Make sure to document like a scientist: Location of the flower, date, and time the photo was taken!

April 16th - 3:10PM - Down the street in a garden.

April 16th - 3:10PM - Down the street in a garden.

2. Now grab your colored pencils and a piece of paper and draw out the flower you found! Get creative! 

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3. Now it is time to label the parts of our flower! 

Parts to label: stigma, anther, petals, stem, and leaves 

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Bonus! (Grade 4+)

Want more of a challenge?

  • Now write an explanation of why each part of the flower is important. 

  • What is nectar?

  • Where would pollen be found?

***Once you have finished answering the questions above, click below to see an example!

 

step 3: reflection

Question 1: Why are bees so important? 

 

Question 2: What gets transferred from flower to flower? What does that transfer help do?

 

Question 3: What did you like most about today’s activity?

Question 4: Now take a picture of your flower drawing and your reflection questions. Then email them to us at Change is Simple! (amy@changeissimple.org)

 

step 4: additional resources

Want to learn more? Check out our extra information to fuel your learning!

Did you enjoy today’s activity? Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime…

Send us a photo of yourself doing today's activity and if you would like, please share your name(s) and where you are from with cisonline@changeissimple.org

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Almost Compost Kitchen Garden

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Welcome to Change is Simple’s Online Learning Platform!

Overview: Today we are going to begin an exploration of food! Most people in the world create large amounts of food waste. Today, we are going to take some of that food waste and create a kitchen garden!

Grade Level:  2-4

Theme: Earth Systems, Sustainable Food Systems

Supervision needed? Yes

Essential Questions: 

  • What is compost?

  • What can we do with old food scraps to help our environment?

Materials Needed:

  • Jars with water

  • Toothpicks

  • Food scraps (see below for ideas!)

  • An observation sheet (see below)

Standards:

1-PS4-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.

2-LS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow.

3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

Introduction

If you are anything like us, you sometimes find yourself wondering about all the food that ends up in the trash at your house. You may ask yourself, “Is there something better we can do with all this food? Is there a way we can create LESS food waste?” Well, there is! Today we are going to be taking your old food scraps, and instead of throwing them into the compost or trash bin, we are going to plant them! I am going to be planting pineapple, avocado, onions and celery scraps, but you can plant so much more! Early spring is a great time to start planting fruits and vegetables, because many will be ready to plant outdoors in just a few weeks!

Almost compost garden instructions

One of our lead educators will walk you through how to use a variety of food scraps to grow new produce at your home. If you don’t have the items in the video, feel free to check out this video and this link to see what other food scraps you can use instead.

Be sure to click the button above to access the observation sheet (downloadable PDF), so you can keep track of changes as your plants grow over the next few weeks!

Here’s Skye, one of our Lead Educators, to lead you through today’s activity. Follow along and have fun!

Don’t have celery, avocados, pineapple, or onion? Don’t Worry! watch this video or click this link to see MANY other vegetables we can plant from food scraps!

Ginger Green Onion Garlic Potatoes

Carrots Lettuce Leeks Basil

Oregano Thyme Mint Rosemary

Great job planting your new garden! Be sure to fill out your observation sheet with a photo of your vegetables today, and check out our second activity for the day! These plants may take a few days to a week before you notice any changes. In the meantime……

Reflection Activity

Instructions: Talk to whoever helped you with this activity about these questions (Or, write down the answers on the back of your observation sheet!)

  1. What do you think your plants will look like after one week? Do you think you will see:

A. Root growth

B. Leaf Growth

C. Nothing Different

2. What’s your favorite vegetable and how do you like to eat it (cooked, in soup, with hummus, etc)

3. Why do YOU think it is important to reduce how much food we throw away?

For our older students/viewers, dive deeper into this subject by checking out the film, “Tossed Out”

OR try out these problems!

  1. If the entire world were to reduce their food waste by 2% every year for 5 years, what percentage of our food would we waste? (Hint: we currently waste 21% of our food!)

  2. If the entire world were to INCREASE their food waste by 1% every year for the next 7 years, what percentage of food would we waste?

  3. What are OTHER things you can do to reduce your food waste?

Did you enjoy today’s activity? Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime…

Send us a photo of yourself doing today's activity and if you would like, please share your name(s) and where you are from with cisonline@changeissimple.org