Bees and pollination
CONCEPTUALBees and pollination: how flowers and insects depend on each other. Bees visit flowers for nectar, pollen sticks to their bodies and transfers to the next flower. Without pollination many plants cannot make seeds or fruit. Why bees matter for the food we eat.
Mastery Evidence
- Describe how pollen moves from one flower to another when a bee visits to collect nectar
- Explain that many fruits and vegetables depend on bees or other insects for pollination
- State what would happen to a garden or farm if there were no pollinating insects
Assessment Prompt
“If [child] saw a bee buzzing around flowers in the garden, could they explain how the bee is helping the plant — and why that matters for the food we eat?”
Prerequisites2
- Social insects: ants and beeshardAges 7—9
- Minibeasts in the food chainsoftAges 5—7
Show full prerequisite tree
- Social insects: ants and bees hard
Understanding bee colonies provides context for understanding pollination as a bee behaviour
- Common minibeasts: naming and recognising hard
Must recognise common minibeasts before comparing how they move
- Common minibeasts: naming and recognising hard
Must recognise common minibeasts before studying insect anatomy in detail
- Minibeasts in the food chain soft
Simple food chain understanding prepares for interdependence concept in pollination
- Common minibeasts: naming and recognising hard
Must know common minibeasts before placing them in food chains
Unlocks1
- Insects in ecosystemshardAges 9—11