Concept featured in film:Adaptations, Pollination, Evolution

DVD: Chapter 8

Play Flickclip Here (Quicktime)

Summary of clip: Laroche and Orlean are at a flower show looking at different flowers.  Laroche spots an orchid and notes that Darwin hypothesized that a moth with a proboscis of 12 inches pollinated it.  Laroche then discusses about how each flower and insect that pollinates it are unique, and neither one of them realizes how vital they are to one another.

1. Suggested questions for students when viewing the clip:

• Have students look at different insects and flowers to understand how unique of a relationship this is in nature.
• Have student’s draw their own flower, naming the parts of the flower and along with that, an insect that they feel would pollinate the plant.  This helps students relate information between the plant and how it is pollinated.
• Show students different pictures of flowers that have specific ways of pollinating.  Have students discuss and/or hypothesize how each plant does this.