Saving the World, One Bee at a Time
Honey bees are not the whole story. In fact, they are not even native to North America. North America is home to about 3,500 species of native bees. All of which are pollinators and some of which require very specific host plants.
Did you know that 90% of North America’s bees do not live in hives? Many bees such as mason bees, leaf cutter bees, and carpenter bees live a solitary life. 70% of North America’s bees have nests in the ground, while the remaining 30% use holes in wood or the stems of dead vegetation. Since many of us love cleaning up our yards, bees are losing precious habitat.
One way to help? Make a bee house!
Phenomena
NGSS
3-LS2-1. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
3-LS4-4. Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
Have students take a moment, jot down anything they know about bees. It can be simple, a word, a sentence, or more.
What is this insect? What is it doing?
Use this photo to probe students about what they know and questions they have.
Making A Bee House
This is super easy. You can get fancy or use what you have around. In this lesson, we upcycled milk cartons. At the time there was a Carton to Garden contest that we wanted to try and enter, so we saved and washed dozens of milk cartons for our bee houses.
After learning bees like the color blue, we decided to roll up blue paper into cylinders. The initial plan was to use bamboo that had fallen, but I simply did not have it in me to cut up a million pieces of wood! And I think the kids had more fun this way anyway.
We also ended up planting native flowers around our bee boxes, but that is another post!
During this time we had mini lessons and read more about bees and pollution. We learned that habitat destruction was not the only threat that bees face. Using pesticides was devastating to bees.
So we made an action plan.
Writing About Bees
For the closing of our lesson, we decided to write to the Almond Board of California and ask them not to spray pesticides on their almond trees. Sure, we live in Georgia. But pesticides affect us all and we settled on this because a students suggested it and the rest agreed.
This is why it is important to let the students take the lead on things. Their letters were heartfelt and they really wanted to write them! Unfortunately I took exactly zero pictures of their letters. It happens.
Reading About Bees
I chose these books because they didn’t only focus on the honeybee. It’s important for us to support native bees!
Want to know more?
The Bee Conservancy has tons of information on native bees! They also have a program where you can sponsor a hive, download activities, or my favorite, have your class become citizen scientists!