All About Flowers: The Science of Flowers, Plants, and Bugs (Live)

This is a great class to get your learner hooked on the topic of science and nature. There are so many hidden interactions between plants insects and flowers. In particular, flowers are an interactive hub where pollinators, predatory wasps, and many more species flock to feed on nectar and pollen. Flowers play a crucial role in the creation of seeds, plant reproduction, and thus the cycle of life. Additionally, flowers have adapted a variety of botanical structures to attract specific bugs for specific purposes. And flowers are beautiful! We will look at many beautiful flower pictures and then look closer to examine the ecological role of flowers. There is a hidden drama taking place right under our noses at every moment in the natural world. I hope to make this drama come to life for my students and inspire them to take a closer look at the life around them. 

The primary purpose of flowers is to allow plants to exchange their genetic material and reproduce, creating genetic diversity and allowing for the evolution of the species. For a portion of this class, we will be talking indirectly about sex as a biological concept. If you are uncomfortable with this please let me know in advance and we can discuss it in more veiled terminology or not at all. 

I like to lead my classes with questions to create an interactive environment. I want to unlock the knowledge that learners already have and lead them to answers. As a teacher, I am especially good at getting learners to break out of their shell and speak up in the class. Learners are usually surprised by how much they are talking and thinking in my classes, which keeps them talking and thinking about the class even after it ends. However, I also welcome students who aren't comfortable speaking or appearing on screen. I like to include a warm-up game in every one of my classes so that learners can interact with each other and build a sense of community in the classroom. I celebrate neurodiversity and I am happy to work with you to adapt this class to your learners needs. 

My one-time classes are abbreviated versions of concepts that we will explore more in-depth in my ongoing class, Garden Biology. https://outschool.com/classes/garden-biology-the-science-of-plant-life-gardening-and-the-environment-yEk1G6wO#usKmUJaykT

I hope you will join me! 
-Peter