Trego's Mountain Ear

While many people think of the post-valentine’s day sales in terms of cheap chocolate, as a science teacher, they always remind me that it’s time for flower dissections. My kids are a little too young to get a lot of the details, but I think I’ll try it as a sensory activity anyway.

With older students, I’d start with a coloring activity- degree of detail on the diagram depending on age. Flowers are surprisingly complex, and a very safe, calm way to introduce the tools of dissection.

Children can practice identify petals, sepals, ovaries, and stamen. They can even determine whether the flower is imperfect (single sex) or perfect (both male and female).

Extend the activity further and you can talk about how the shape and color of the flower correspond to the pollinator, though you’re unlikely to find an example of a beetle or fly pollinated flower in a bouquet. Flowers pollinated by flies and beetles tend to smell a lot like rotting meat.