Flowers

Pure temptation

In the Botanic Garden's large array of flowers, the pupils have the opportunity to get to know selected plant families by their flower shape. Binoculars and microscopes help them. They learn about different ways of pollinating flowering plants, with insects playing a special role. In the process, the pupils explore the question of how insects are attracted to flowers and how they are rewarded. In a self-experiment, the pupils find out that not every insect matches every flower. In other plants, the wind plays an important role in pollination. Under the microscope, the pupils look at the variety of shapes of plant pollen and deduce the type of dispersal, insect or wind, from the shape.

Competences:

•     examine, name and document the components of a flower and their function
•     explore a part of the botanical garden and examine, classify and identify typical plants of different families, thus gaining knowledge of species
•     practise their perception through the sense of smell
•     investigate the mechanism of pollination observe and document pollinator insects on self-selected flowers in the field
•     use simple structural and functional models and compare them with real objects
•     describe and explain interdependencies and adaptation processes of plants and animals
•     discuss the responsibility of humans for the protection of ecosystems and reflect on the possibilities and limits of their own influence
•     use stereoscopes and microscopes appropriately and sketch parts of plants.