designing a hand pollinator

DESIGNING A HAND POLLINATORBy: Michelle Garcia and Erin Barrett

STORY COMPREHENSION In Mariana Becomes a Butterfly, Mariana

realizes that her Ohelo plant is not being pollinated by insects. She tells her dad about this problem. He then tells her to ask her aunt, an agricultural engineer, for advice. Her aunt uses the engineering design process to guide Mariana in finding a solution. In the end, she realizes that she needs to make a hand pollinator, so she does.

THE ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS

MARIANA’S ENGINEERING PROCESS Ask: “Why is my plant is not doing well?” Imagine: “ What are some reasons why my

plant is not being pollinated?” Plan: “ What types of materials will pick up

and drop off pollen well?” Create: “ Let me see test the materials.” Improve: “ Which material picks up and

drops off pollen the best?”

TRY IT! choose a type of flower design it Test various materials to see which would

pollinate a flower the best choose the best type of material to design

the hand pollinator Build the pollinator

OUR ENGINEERING PROCESS Ask: “ How can we design an effective hand

pollinator?” Imagine: We visualized how each material

would pick up pollen. Plan: We picked the materials we would test. Create: We designed some different hand

pollinators. Improve: We determined which materials

made the best hand pollinator, and then we combined these 2 materials to make a better hand pollinator.

OUR FLOWER

ALUMINUM FOIL

Testing stage Picking up Pollen Dropping off Pollen

PIPE CLEANER

Testing stage Picking up pollen Dropping off pollen

TAPE

Testing stage Picking up Pollen Dropping off pollen

POM POM

Testing stage Picking up pollen Dropping pollen off

IMPROVEMENTS This project would be an age appropriate

project for 2nd to 5th grade students. However with children in 1st grade or below,

the project would have to be simplified For example, you could have the kids test

less materials or have the teacher do the project as a demonstration