Day 2

DAY 2: The Air Up There

Activity 1: Bee Informed [4 points]

One of the most important, but least talked about, animals in New Zealand is the bumblebee. It was first introduced to New Zealand in 1885 to help pollinate a special plant called the ‘Red Clover.’ Today, bumblebees do many other important jobs, including the pollination of greenhouses and orchard crops. If the bees did not pollinate the plants, they would not survive.

For this activity, we would like you to bee-come detectives and to learn more about the mysterious, and often ignored, bumblebee. We will provide you with five sentences about bumblebees from the NZ Bumblebee Conservation Trust website and it is your job to fill in the blanks with the missing information about bees. Choose the phrase/word that makes the most sense from the list at the bottom. (Each phrase/word can only be used once).

Facts about Bumblebees

• The word ‘bumblebee’ is a compound word (bumble + bee). The word ‘bumble’ means to hum,buzz or drone
• Bumblebees can fly very quickly. They can reach ground speeds of 54 kilometres per hour (km/h)
• Bumblebees are very strong! They carry up to 90% percent of their body weight in food with them to avoid starvation.
• Bumblebees can do more work and carry more pollen than other bees, including honeybees. In fact, they can do up to   50 times as much work as a normal honeybee.
• The number of bumblebees is declining in New Zealand due to a number of factors, including the__removal of wildflowers and folowering trees, habitat loss and extensive use of pesticides

Activity 2: Carbon Sinks Don’t Stink!

Every day a chemical compound called carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced and released into the air.  If it isn’t removed, it can become toxic for humans. Fortunately, there are a number of places where CO2 is absorbed (removed from the air). Two of the most common places are forests and oceans. They are called ‘carbon sinks’ because, like a sink, they gather, clean and drain things away that we don’t want. One of the largest carbon sinks in New Zealand is a forest in the south-western part of the South Island. It drains away 60% of our unwanted carbon! Let’s imagine that you could design a sink that could gather up and then drain away any foods that you don’t like. On your blog, tell us what you would put in your special sink. If it was me, I would put rice pudding, brussel sprouts, custard, parsnips, and seafood chowder in the sink. Yuck! What about you?

FOOD I DON'T LIKE: FOOD I DO LIKE:

1. Cucumber 1. Broccoli

2. Capsicum 2. cabbage

3. Artichokes 3. water cress

4. Aubergines 4. Silver beet

5. Brussels sprout 5. Cauli flower

Activity 3: Flying Fungi

In the middle of winter it can get quite wet and damp in New Zealand, can’t it? When it gets really damp, it is common for things like mould and fungi to start to grow. We can often see them on the walls, ceilings or floors of our houses or outside on footpaths, buildings or roadways. Some types of mould and fungi are so small that they can’t be seen. Some of these tiny fungi/mould can be found in the air. They are called ‘airborne fungi’ and they can be unhealthy for us.

Let’s imagine that we tested the air in your classroom and found 7 different kinds of mould. Eek! The cleaner says that it takes 5 days for each mould to be eradicated (removed). If the school had to remove each mould one at a time, how long would it take to remove all the mould from the classroom?

7 different moulds

5 days for each mould to come off

365 days in a year

75 weeks to get the mould of is