In the spring, many flowering plants produce lots of pollen. The pollen grains are blown all over by the wind or carried to other flowers by pollinators. Pollen can land on objects outside. The powder can pile up over time. Looking at the amount of pollen in a defined area over a set period of time is one way to estimate the amount of pollen in the air. 

METHOD:

Step one

Measure a 1 in by 3 in rectangle on the paper

Step two:

Cut out this rectangle. 

Step three:
Tape this rectangle to an outside surface. Make sure to put the tape only on the back of the rectangle so pollen can collect on the front. 

Step four:

Leave the paper outside for an hour. 

Step five:

Come back and take a picture of how much pollen has landed on the paper. 

Step six:

Discuss with an adult where this pollen may have come from. If there wasn’t a lot of pollen on the paper, why might that be? 

(Optional: upload the picture to the Pollen Nation app to join their citizen science project. By becoming a citizen scientist, you help scientists learn more about the world around us.)