Buggy Diner

Vocabulary: Beneficial Insects, Pests, Experiments, Controls, Variables, Habitat

Grade Levels: 3rd-5th

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Science Framework

Spanish Lesson Plan

Lesson Video
Lesson Inspiration

Lesson Bridge:

Connect this lesson (2) with ‘Space Travelers’ (1) by explaining that while some bugs are microscopic and help to make soil healthy for plants to grow, other bugs are big enough to see with our naked eye and are sometimes considered pests because they eat our gardens.

Lesson Overview:  

In this lesson students will set up a simple test to demonstrate the feeding preferences of some common garden insects. They will use the data they collect to classify insects as either beneficial or pests and relate how we can use this information to help grow a healthier garden.

Suggested Activities & Learning Objectives by Grade:

• 3:

• 3-LS1-1 What do you discover about the life cycles of the insects you are examining?
• 3-LS4-3 Does your insect survive in the habitat you created--why or why not?

• 4:

• 4-LS1-1 Does your insect have special structures that help it survive?  Do the plants you are feeding to it have special structures to defend themselves?

Essential Question(s) that Connect CCCs and SEPs:

• What sort of things do bugs do in our garden? (Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information)
• How do we know if a bug is good or bad for our garden? (Cause & Effect; Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information)
• Is there an experiment we could do to test whether a bug is good or bad for our garden? (Cause & Effect; Planning & Carrying out Investigations)
• Is there a pattern you've noticed about what types of bugs are good and what ones are bad?(Patterns; Asking Questions & Defining Problems)

Vocabulary

Beneficial Insects- any species of insects that perform a valued service in our gardens like pollination, decomposition, or pest control.

Pests- A destructive insect that harms our garden’s crops

Experiments- A test made to answer a question

Controls- The part of an experiment that remains unchanged

Variables- The parts of an experiment that are changed and measured

Habitat- A place that provides food, shelter, and water for an animal or plant to live

Materials:

• Buggy Diner Student Lab Sheet- 1 per group and
• Clipboards and pencils
• 3 clear cups or mason jars
• 3 pieces of fabric to cover cup/jar could use paper towels from campus) rubber bands to secure
• Garden insects (students will collect)
• Variety of plant leaves (students will collect)
• Plant and insect reference guides (optional)
• Bugs, Humans, and Soil Series Garden Journal (optional)
• Common Insects Visual

Prep:

• Walk around the school campus and garden to note areas where there are a lot of insects and leaves for students to observe and collect from.
• Print out worksheets.

Optional: to prepare the experiment 24 hours beforehand so students can observe what leaves the bugs you collected have eaten. Then, prepare one cup/jar with the class so they have something to take to the classroom and observe for the next day.

What happens if weather isn’t inviting for insects: Printing out photos (or drawing) about 9 commonly spotted insects and placing them in their “habitat.” The explore piece can continue out as outlined below.

Activity Procedure:

Engage:

Begin with a classroom discussion in the seating area in your garden:

How do you help other people? Share ideas.  How do other people help you? Share again. In the garden, plants and animals can help each other, too.  Of course, we know that some insects harm our crops by eating them.  But did you know that many other insects can help our garden grow?

Sentence Frame: I help people by _______.

Explore:

Have students go into the garden and look for evidence of bug activity, then have everyone come back to the seating area to share. What evidence did you find?

Ps. Bug activity is everywhere! Spider webs, snail trails, chomped leaves, movement under the soil. Encourage students to look closely. They can even pretend that they are small like a bug!

Explain:

Think, Pair, Shares: What are some ways insects can help our garden? 

Sentence Frame: A bug is good for our garden if ___________.

Some pollinate the flowers so that the plants can make fruits and seeds.  Without pollinators, we wouldn’t have any apples, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkins, avocados, or many other fruits!  Other beneficial insects eat pests, keeping them off our crops.  Ladybugs, for example, eat aphids.  

What is the difference between a beneficial insect and a pest?   These insects are like the guardians of the garden.  Insects that help the garden grow are called beneficial insects.  A pest is an insect that is destructive to the plants in the garden we want to grow (not weeds).  

Thumbs up/down: When you explored the garden earlier did you find any evidence of pests in our garden?

 How can you tell if an insect is a beneficial insect or a pest?

Sentence Frame: A bug is beneficial if _________ and a pest if ____________.

We share our garden with lots of critters.  Who lives in our garden? Where do they go for food? Not all insects eat the same foods.  Some like to eat leafy parts of vegetables and some like the roots. Would this be a beneficial or pest?  Some insects prefer other weeds or other insects! Would this insect be a beneficial insect or a pest? We are going to be detectives and find out which insects in our garden are beneficials or pests! What do detectives do? (Collect evidence!) 

Action:

Run experiment with students:

1. Review your Garden Agreements
2. Go into the garden with students to find three different kinds of bugs.
3. Place the three bugs into three separate mason jars/containers
4. Students go into the garden and surrounding area to gather 3 different types of leaves (lettuce, kale leaf, oak leaf, and grass)
5. Place one sample of each leaf into the three jars. Each jar should have a variety of all three leaves.
6. Write on the board the types of leaf samples you have. Ask the class what bug they want to invite to the diner.
7. Have the students fill out their worksheet with the experiment details
8. You can have this extra fun by getting the kids to name their bugs.
9. Label each jar
10. Let the class take the bug back to their classroom for 24-48 hours to be observed throughout the day. Ask them to release the bug back into the garden after the time has passed.
11. Tell students that when they return you will get to discuss what they observed about the insect and if one food was its favorite.
12. At this point, the classroom teacher will take over leading the experiment and discussions.  Please provide the teacher with: Buggy Diner Student Lab Sheet-
13. Safely release your bugs where you found them after you have completed the experiment.

Run experiment beforehand:

1. Review your Garden Agreements
2. Hand out the Buggy Diner Student Lab Sheet
3. Write on the board the types of leaf samples you have in your jars along with the bugs. Have students copy along on their lab sheets.
4. Either allow students to view your pre-made jars with bugs or pass them around the seating area.
5. Prepare one buggy diner experiment as a class for them to take back with them and observe

Reflect:

Sentence Frame: I predict the _____ will eat the _______ because it is (beneficial/ pest).

After the students have observed their bug’s eating habits for 24-48 hrs, ask:

Which leaves did the bugs choose to eat? None of the leaves? Some of the leaves? All of the leaves?

What does the bug’s eating preference tell us about whether or not the bug is a beneficial insect or pest?

If your bug ate some leaves but not others, what does that tell you about the habitat in which that bug prefers to live in?

Did we correctly classify the control and the variable?

Sentence Frame: The control was _____ and the variable was _______.

Extension Activities:

• Invite the class to adopt a space in the garden to plant a beneficial insect garden.  Students can research further what bugs are beneficials and what plants attract them to our garden.  Follow this Sprout Scouts lesson plan for ideas and guidance: Homes for Our Helpers
• Construct a bug hotel, such as a solitary bee hive.  Follow this Sprout Scouts activity for ideas and guidance: Build a Bee Hotel
• Observe and draw the external structures of the insects and research how these structures support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.  Are there any patterns in the structures of beneficial insects? Pests?