Little Worker Bees

   We had an impromptu lesson on pollination recently; an observant little student found some pollen that happened to drop from the pretty flowers (from my coworkers and students- lucky me) and instantly brought all of our attention to it! We all walked over to see the sticky yellow powder on the corner of my desk:

and here is the pollen still on the plant:

   So, seeing as this was a teachable moment I talked through the process of how bees carry pollen from flower to flower and... we acted as BEES! We collected the pollen and delivered it to the other unsuspecting beautiful flowers! I made sure to note that the flowers were cut flowers and this was merely a demonstration of how the pollination process occurs. We also learned from Mr. Mecoli that the cross pollination was not possible between these two types of flowers even if they were alive.

  I may be partial, but I think they are just about the cutest little bees I have ever seen! =)