Background

Structure of a flower: part of the plant that contains the reproductive organs.
Stigma: part of the pistil that receives the pollen.
Style: central part of the pistil.
Ovary: lower part of the pistil that produces eggs.
Pistil: the set of female parts of a flower; includes the ovary, style, and stigma.
Receptacle: part of the flower to which the other parts are attached.
Pedicel: the stalk supporting the flower.
Sepal: each parts of the calyx of a flower.
Petal: each parts of the corolla of a flower.
Filament: male reproductive organ of a flower.
Anther: part of the stamen that produces the pollen.

When the pollen enters the pistil, it can fertilize an egg. It will develop in the ovary and become a fruit and seed. Some species require pollen from a different plant and some species can self-pollinate.

Vocabulary

Pollen: A powdery substance found in a flower. This is an important part of the fruit growing process.
Pollinator: Any small animal, usually an insect that helps spread the pollen from one plant to another.

Attention Grabber

Cut up an apple and share a piece with each student. (You can use any fruit, as long as there are seeds in the inside). What is in the inside of the apple? The seeds are on the inside! To me, I think the point of an apple is for me to eat it, but to the plant, the real reason is to have a place to hold the seeds. How did the apple tree, or any other plant make those seeds? Let’s investigate!

Garden Activity

Part 1- Dissecting a Flower

•    Show students the pollen on the flower. Explain to students that this is called pollen and is a very important part of fruit growing.
•    Show students how to use a hand lens. Using a hand lens, have students carefully examine a lily flower. Ask students to pay particular attention to the pollen. Have students touch the pollen with their fingers.
•    If there is time and flowers available, have students go out in the garden and look for pollen on the flowers.

Part 2- Pollination Observation

•    Introduce the word “pollinator”. Explain the role of a pollinator is to bring the pollen from one flower to another. This enables to fruit to grow! This process is called pollination. Ask students if they know of any pollinators. Show students the pictures of pollinators.
•    Have flowers in the garden that attracts pollinators. If you can, have the students plant the flowers.  Some examples are lavender, poppies, and strawberries. * Strawberries are really useful to show how the fruit grows.
•    Using the hand lens, have students observe the plant parts and pollinators if they are present. If this lesson is done after the Butterfly Lesson, then students can look for the insect parts. Ask them if they can see the pollen on the insects’ bodies. Find some flowers that have been newly pollinated. You can see it is pollinated with the ovary (base of the pistil) starts to swell.

Part 3- Observe fruit grow

•    Have students observe the process of the fruits growing from the flower. Some good examples include: strawberries, sugar snap peas, and tomatoes.
•    Have students fold a piece of paper into six pieces and track the growth of the fruit from flower to fruit. Have the student draw an observation so to spread out the growth (this will vary according to what fruit they are observing).

Wrap Up & Assessment

•    Ask students to create a storyboard that illustrates the process of fruit growing. Ask them to include: the flower with pollen, the pollinator, and then the fruit slowly growing. Ask them to write about what is happening in each picture.
•    Include the fruit growing observation in their science portfolio.
•    Have students act out the “Pollination Play” starring:
o    Francis and Friends: the flowers
o    Betty and buddies:  the bees
o    Pablo and people:  the pollen
o    Freddy and followers:  the fruit

What’s Next?

•    Plant some radish seeds. Observation flowering and fruiting process. Have students collect radish seeds from their plants and plant some of those themselves. This allows the student to observe the fruiting process and observe that the offspring of plants have similar characteristics to their parents (L.S. 2a Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind and that the offspring resemble their parents and one another).
 

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Student Worksheet