Bees4Kids - Teachers

Start with Pooh

Pooh bear is a good starting point for young children. They can relate to a topic when you start with the familiar. All children know how Pooh bear tried to get to a bee's nest to get honey. Beekeepers have a better way.

 

Creating a model of honeycomb

This provides an excellent and child friendly way of explaining what can be found in the cells of a comb in a honeybee hive to very young children.

The comb can be made from hexagonal cardboard cylinders from the pattern below. Cut out the pattern and lightly score along the dotted lines. Then fold along the dotted lines and glue together (use paper clips to hold them until the glue dries)

Into the cells can be placed:-

• A small jar of honey
• A small jar of pollen
• An egg (plastic or even chocolate)
• A small white larva (cotton wool for example)
• A big fat white larva (knitted)
• A cuddly bee - this should be hidden with a lid

You may be able to think of better ways of depicting these.

The pattern produces hexagonal cylinders 61 mm. across flats and 74 mm. deep.
Probabaly the easiest way to print the pattern is to Download Honeycomb PDF.

Ideas for projects

Where do bees live?

This project asks children to find out and think about where bees can be found and why they live there. They can present their ideas and discoveries as a picture, model, story or a poster with pictures and writing.

The reports can be given on a group or individual level.

Different levels of challenge

This project can be approached at many levels depending on age, interest and time constraints.

At the simplest level children could draw pictures of flowers and beehives. At a slightly higher level they might add captions explaining why the bees need the flowers, that they also need water and why the hive makes a good home. Some children might be inspired to make a model garden or apiary with labels to show their understanding of what is beneficial.
A literary approach might be to write the story of a scout honeybee looking for a new home for a swarm of bees that has just left the hive. For Science, an account and drawings of direct observations of one or more bees in the garden to find out what they are doing and where they are nesting would be very possible with bumble and solitary bees.
Older children might like to concentrate on different types of bees, studying one type in depth or making comparisons. Another interesting challenge for them would be to look at some of the different bees around the world to see how they make homes in different climatic conditions. This extends the scope of study into Key Stages 3 and 4.

Background knowledge for teachers, parents and older children

Different types of bees have different habitats.

All children know that Pooh bear likes honey and are happy to recall the story in which he tried to reach a bee's nest in the top of a tree. This is the natural nest site for the European honeybee. A hollow tree provides a dry, dark, cavity with wood roof on which the bees can fix their combs. There is protection from rain and wind and some insulation although honeybees have such a good air conditioning system this need only be minimal. A small entrance helps the bees that guard the entrance against wasps and alien honeybees that might want to steal the honey. As A.A.Milne suggests bears can be a problem, but not in the UK!. Honeybees also need a supply of water in the spring for diluting honey stores and in the summer for cooling the nest. The beekeeper provides an artificial habitat in which he tries to meet these criteria. However he also imposes restrictions, which help him to look after the bees and take some honey without harming the bees.

All bees will thrive in areas where there is good forage throughout their active season so the presence of a range nectar producing flowers within a radius of about a mile is needed for a viable site. Bumblebee nests are in much smaller cavities because the colony is smaller and they need more insulation, as the queen bee has to start alone in cold weather without workers to help maintain the temperature. Queen Bumble bees look for places that already have bedding material, such as old mouse nests, in the ground or under sheds or, in compost heaps made of fibrous plant material. They sometimes use old bird's nesting boxes. Solitary bees make holes in the ground or use existing tubes like hollow stems of dead plants or holes drilled by wood boring insects. Each individual female bee collects nectar and pollen which she makes into a patty and places at the bottom of the tube, She then lays an egg and covers it with a lid of mud or other natural material. On top of this she puts another food patty, lays another egg and so on. The eggs soon hatch; the larvae feed on the food provided then pupate. The new adults form in early autumn but remain in the cocoon until next spring. The prime requisite for this habitat is that the area is not disturbed and does not become waterlogged. Banks of earth, chalk, well drained lawns and cracks between bricks are ideal habitats.

Farmers and gardeners are providing artificial habitats for some solitary bees to encourage them to nest near to their crops or even move them to the crops since they are such good pollinators. This manipulation of habitat is where science and technology meet to benefit both the human and the natural world. Such nesting boxes would be an interesting addition to a school nature garden. Extract from article by S.Chamberlin in Primary Science and Technology Review Spring 2002

Observing bees on school premises

Points to consider

Having a hive on a school site where children can go and watch what is going on at frequent intervals provides the ideal educational experience. Despite the many potential problems there are still teachers and beekeepers who, having assessed and minimized the risks, are happy to have working hives on site for short and sometimes long periods.

However, we would advise any teachers or beekeepers who want to go ahead with such a project to make a written risk assessment which they present to the school governors. They should ask for written permission from the school governors. (Don't forget to extol the educational value of the project)

These notes are from Martin Buckle who has had close contacts with his village primary school for a number of years and the children regularly present their beekeeping diaries at the National Honey Show.

A Beehive for class observation

Observe live bees without undue risk by watching an intact undisturbed hive from behind a permanently erected netting screen. The bees get accustomed to flying up and over, and children can watch at close quarters without fear of stings. Since the hive will be watched from outside without any disturbance, a beekeeper does not have to be present when children are watching it. The teacher should ask for the hive to be placed so that it is:-

1. Not directly accessible to children without supervision. Suitable barriers between children an hive could a boundary fence, screen netting, or a flower bed.
2. With its entrance mostly towards the children, and
3. Close enough for the children behind the screen netting to see individual bees easily.

The netting screen netting should be about 2m high, dark in colour with holes small enough to deter bees from flying through. Weatherproof netting is available at garden centres or beekeeping suppliers. It is easier to see through if the background behind the hive is dark - such as trees, a tall hedge, or a wall. Bees follow "flight paths" and it is important that the children's observation point is not in one of these.

Another possibility is to have the hive close to the windows of a classroom or a corridor so that observations are made from indoors. In this case it helps to have the hive raised on a garden table or a small stand. Placed like this the hive is also in a good position for children to be shown the interior by the beekeeper..

Ideas for simple but interesting observations of bees

Thinking up simple scientific experiments can be somewhat daunting - particularly for younger children. But we can treat it as collecting data. The trick is to ask questions that can be answered in simple ways. For example:-

Do the same number of bees leave a hive as return?
Does the weather alter the number of flying bees?
What weather suits bees best for flying out?
Do the bees rush home before or after the weather gets worse?
What time of day do bees fly most/least often?
Do any bees fly when it is raining?
How long do bees stay away when they fly out foraging?
What proportion of bees return carrying pollen?
How many bees are there in the total flying force? Which direction do the bees go? What things might they be going to in these directions?

Observations

1. Count bees leaving the hive in a set time, say 5 minutes. Repeat several times to get reliable results.
2. Count bees returning, similarly. Compare 1 with 2.
3. Record weather when doing 1 and 2 and relate the results.
4. Repeat the above at different times of day, on different days, in different weather, times of year, and compare the results.
5. Keep all the records centrally so that other children can use them later.
6. Watch returning bees and record:-
   • colours of pollen loads.
   • how many different kinds of pollen are coming in.
   • What proportion of returning bees have pollen? One child counts a hundred bees whilst their partner records the counts on a 10 X 10 grid. Another pair count and record only those with pollen loads in the same time period. Scientists always work best in teams.
7. Watch leaving bees for as long as possible and record their flight:-
   • describe patterns of flight perhaps as a line on a map. Do some return immediately?
   • Record directions of flights, either by putting arrows on a chart like a cricket analysis book, or by simply keeping a tick record of the main compass direction, thus:-

1. Get the beekeeper to mark a few bees (adult foragers) with tippex so that you can recognize them, then:-
   1. See how long marked bees stay away when they go out
   2. Get a rough idea of total number of foragers by counting what proportion of those leaving the hive are marked, for example:-
      • mark a known number, say twenty.
      • let them mix in the hive for a while, until tomorrow say.
      • Count 100 bees leaving, but note how many of the 100 are marked.
      • So, if twenty in all are marked but only 1 of the marked bees was in the 100 you counted flying, then 20x100=2000 bees are flying.
      • If 2 in 100 are flying this is 1 in 50 and 20x50=1000 are flying.
      • You need a lot of figures to get statistically reliable results but understanding the mathematical principle is what matters here.
2. Put a large flat sheet on the ground in front of the hive for a day to catch anything that the bees drop. At the end of the day take fold the sheet with its debris for sorting back in the classroom. You are liable to find:-
   • wax scales from opened honey comb cells.
   • dead bees.
   • other debris including dead parasites.
   • bee droppings which appear on the sheet as yellow or orange stains.
   • Try to explain why the bees might have dumped each item.
3. What other animals use the beehive as a habitat? Get the beekeeper to search. You might find spiders inside the lid, ants coming up the legs, earwigs, wood lice in damp parts, wax-moth and their larvae etc..

See Schools Pack for Bees in the Curriculm.

Credit
The original Bees4kids website was created by Raymond & Sylvia Chamberlin High Wycombe Beekeepers Association.

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