Sterling+Public+School

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** Inquiry-Based Research for Entomology and Plant Taxonomy of Oklahoma ** Following is a Journal of our Field Research for the Summer Institute 2008

 * Driving Question: Are insects attracted to flowers by fragrance or color? **


 * A Brief Science Lesson : **


 * =Flower Pollination and Fertilization= ||
 * [[image:http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/aencmed/targets/illus/ilt/T629041A.gif width="556" height="328" caption="Flower Pollination and Fertilization"]] ||
 * [[image:http://encarta.msn.com/xImages/trans.gif width="1" height="10"]] ||
 * Flowers contain the structures necessary for sexual reproduction. The male component, or stamen, consists of a thin stalk called the filament, capped by the anther. The female component, the pistil, includes the stigma, a sticky surface that catches pollen; the ovary, which contains the ovule and embryo sac with its egg; and the style, a tube that connects the stigma and ovary (A). Pollen is produced in the anther (B), and is released when mature (C). Each mature pollen grain contains two sperm cells. In self-pollinating plants, the pollen lands on the stigma of the same flower, but in cross-pollinating plants—the majority of plants—the pollen is carried by wind, water, insects, or small animals to another flower. If the pollen attaches to the stigma of a flower from the same species, the pollen produces a pollen tube, which grows down the neck of the style, transporting the sperm to the ovule (D). Within the embryo sac of the ovule, one sperm cell fertilizes the egg, which develops into a seed. The second sperm cell unites with two cells in the embryo sac called polar nuclei, and this results in the development of the endosperm, the starchy food that feeds the developing seed. The ovary enlarges (E) and becomes a fruit.- msn encarta

sciencebuddies.org
 * THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD:**

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 * Our Activities and Observations: **
 * June 2, 2008 ** - Lake Lawtonka (Special Use Area #2)- We identified flowers and counted the number of each that were present at this location.

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View some of our pictures: media type="custom" key="835029"


 * June 3, 2008 **- Quanah Parker (Sunset)- We observed which insects visited each of the flowers. We also went back and looked closer at our pictures from June 2 to see if insects were present on those flowers.

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 * June 4 and 5, 2008 **-Quanah Parker (Sunset) and Lake Lawtonka (Special Use Area #2) We observed pollination and specialization of flower visitation by insects. We concentrated on four flowers (Prarie Coneflower, Prarie Sabatia, Daisy Fleabane, and Chervil) and counted the number of insects that visited each of the flowers. June 5 was a very very windy day so we may have had different results on a still day.

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Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) Coleoptera (beetles) Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) Diptera (flies) June 4, 2008 || 5 || 7 || 0 || 13 || 25 || Graph of data for June 4, 2008 media type="custom" key="834297"
 * Following are Table(s) showing the # of Insects that visited the four types of observed flowers:**
 * Plant Species || Hymenoptera || Coleoptera || Lepidoptera || Diptera || Total ||
 * Prairie Coneflower || 7 || 15 || 0 || 4 ||  26 ||
 * Prairie Sabatia || 3 || 3 || 3 || 3 || 12 ||
 * Daisy Fleabane || 6 || 0 || 2 || 11 || 19 ||
 * Cherval

June 5, 2008 Graph of data for June 5,2008 media type="custom" key="834059"
 * Plant Species ||  Hymeoptera  ||  Coleptera  ||  Lepidoptera  ||  Diptera  ||  Total  ||
 * Prarie Coneflower ||  1  ||  17  ||  5  ||  6  ||  29  ||
 * Prarie Sabatia ||  0  ||  0  ||  0  ||  0  ||   0  ||
 * Daisy Fleabane ||  1  ||  0  ||  0  ||  4  ||  5  ||
 * Cherval ||  1  ||  4  ||  0  ||  4  ||  9  ||

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 * June 6, 2008** - It was a long but fun week  J . We learned lots! We prepared for the Beavers Bend trip next week.

**June 9-12, 2008-** We went to Beavers Bend

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 * Our hypothesis is: IF a flower is very colorful THEN it will attract more pollinators than a drab colored or white flower.

At Beavers Bend we continued to observe various flowers and count the number of insect visitors. We combined and analyzed our data to see if there was a direct correlation between color of flower and insect pollinators

Beavers Bend Pictures:

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Total # of Insects observed:

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Conclusion: Our hypothesis was found to be incorrect. Further research is needed to see if other factors such as fragrance, size, shape, or location determine the insect pollinators that visit particular flowers.

Graph of Pedometer steps taken on this journey to find flowers and insects:

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Our DVD Movie: media type="youtube" key="n5uGCJl658Y" width="425" height="350"


 * media type="custom" key="855833"A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT MADE THIS PROJECT POSSIBLE !!**

This has been a really neat project. As teachers we wonder how can we can apply this to our classrooms. Check out the neat sites we found that will help incorporate Bugs and Plants into our classrooms.


 * Early Elementary:

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/lessonplans/bugs/index.htm

Elementary:

http://www.sansimon.k12.az.us/art/artlesson.html

http://www.pedagonet.com/other/lsplns.html

Middle School:

http://www.ncsu.edu/kenanfellows/2001/cmoser/projecthabitat.html

High School:

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/gpe.html

http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/science/biology/insects/

All ages:

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/bugconnection/teaching/teaching.htm**

You may link the Oklahoma PASS objectives at: http://www.sde.state.ok.us/ or http://www.sde.state.ok.us/Curriculum/PASS/default.html

You may link to the Sterling School website at: [|http://www.sterling.k12.ok.us]

 Thanks for visiting our page!

Evie Hudson and Pam Talbert**  