Pollinator and Native Plant Garden Planning Project PBL Ecology Sustainability

The Pollinator and Native Plant Garden PBL allows students to explore a pollinator that is important to the ecosystem where they live and design a garden to support their life cycle. The project can be introduced by showing The Pollinators documentary but is not required.

Included in the teacher notes of this resource are tips for showing the documentary, how to lead class discussions about the content of the documentary, and a viewing guide.

After viewing the documentary, students will choose a native pollinator to research. Students will then research native plant species their native pollinators relies on during its life cycle and designs a garden.

Your purchase includes:

• 1-page student handout describing the project and its requirements
• 2-page teacher implementation notes
• 3 different graphic organizers to support student research
• Student exemplar projects -Editable grading rubric

This listing includes: Zip file with a PDF of the project and an editable rubric.

Still have questions? Check out the full preview here.

NGSS Aligned:

• HS-LS2-6: Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem. Examples of changes in ecosystem conditions could include modest biological or physical changes, such as moderate hunting or a seasonal flood; and, extreme changes, such as volcanic eruption or sea level rise.
• HS-LS2-7: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity. Examples of human activities can include urbanization, building dams, and dissemination of invasive species.
• HS-LS2-8: Evaluate evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce. Emphasis is on: (1) distinguishing between group and individual behavior, (2) identifying evidence supporting the outcomes of group behavior, and (3) developing logical and reasonable arguments based on evidence. Examples of group behaviors could include flocking, schooling, herding, and cooperative behaviors such as hunting, migrating, and swarming.
  
• HS-LS4-6: Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity. Emphasis is on testing solutions for a proposed problem related to threatened or endangered species, or to genetic variation of organisms for multiple species.

Project-based learning is “a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge” from BIE.