Several of the books I got from the library suggested ways to demonstrate different types of insect mouthparts. I may have combined some ideas from those books, but I think I mostly followed this lesson plan here for this activity. There are some other good lesson plan ideas about Insects at this same site, too.
This activity demonstrates two important principles: how the different parts of a plant or flower can benefit different insects so that nothing is wasted, and how each insect has a mouthpart adapted to the specific types of food it eats. More details are in the pdf, but we demonstrated fly mouthparts, butterfly probosces, dragonfly mandibles, mosquito probosces, and leaf-cutter ant jaws. Everyone liked it QUITE a lot!
We also did this worksheet, which was provided at the .pdf link above, except I changed it around to make it a matching game. Feel free to use it. (The original worksheet just lists the insects and their respective foods and mouthparts; here they're mixed up so you have to draw lines to match the correct ones together.)
thank you...i like your worksheet!!
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