Seed Savers

Today, 4th, 5^th and 6^th class got a visit from Áine. She works for seed savers. She walked us through a basic explanation of what pollination was, how pollen was spread and how and who it’s spread by. We were also taught how important bees are and how they spread pollen. She showed us a diagram of how pollen was spread. Firstly, the bees are attracted to the flowers by its bright colours or scent. Secondly, the bee lands on the flower collecting the pollen without even realizing what an important job they are doing. Thirdly the bee goes back to his hive carrying his pollen in his basket (a bee’s basket is a small basket between the bees back legs). Finally, when the bee arrives back at his hive he makes his honey. I thought this was all really fascinating, because I never knew that they don’t realize they collect their pollen by accident.

                After the power point we had a lunch break and after lunch Áine then brought 6^th class outside and guided us around the school showing us all the different species of plants, flowers, trees and weeds.   We got into groups of 2 and we had to list high value pollinators and low value pollinators in our school grounds. We were also given a map of the school and marked North, South, East and West on the map to know which way we were going and how our map is orientated. I only got 2 low value pollinators and 34 high value pollinators. I really enjoyed today as it was really interesting. My favorite part was going outside and looking at all the nature happening around us in such a small area.

By Gráinne

6^th class