Bee Battles: MS-LS2-2 Student Handout with Teacher Guide and Key

This short performance assessment is focused on NGSS standard MS-LS2-2. Students use patterns from evidence of interactions among pollinators across multiple habitat types to predict what will happen to the Mojave Poppy Bee if European Honey Bees are introduced to their habitat.

Standard assessed

MS-LS2-2. Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

Phenomenon

The population of Mojave Poppy Bees near Las Vegas is low, but humans are contemplating the introduction of a new population of non-native European Honey Bees.

Three-Dimensional Statement

Students construct an explanation that predicts the impact of introducing European Honey Bees on the Mojave Poppy Bee populations in the Las Vegas Wash to determine whether a pattern in evidence across multiple ecosystems supports the claim that interactions between the two types of bees will cause a change in the population of Mojave Poppy Bees.

Background Information

The Mojave Poppy Bee (Perdita meconis) is a specialist pollinator that is only known to nectar on three poppy plant species in the Mojave Desert.  This bee was once found in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California.  However, its range is currently limited to a small area bordering on Lake Mead in Southern Nevada.  Long-term drought, competition from Africanized honey bees, as well as human activities including gypsum mining, cattle grazing, and housing development, are considered to have caused this reduction in range and population.