Designs of Nature - Honeybees

Focus: Honeybees are fascinating insects whose uniquely designed physical and social structures contribute to their survival and success.

Puppets (Father, Polly the Girl, Magic Fairy, Polly Bee, Queen Bee)

Materials Checklist
Puppet show (puppets, script, illustrations comparing queen, worker, drone)
A Closer Look (dead honeybees, beehive frames or piece of honeycomb, hand lenses, diagram of anatomy of a honeybee)
Comb Shapes (2 sheets of paper, 8 ½ “ x 11”, 12 circles – 3” diameter, 12 hexagons – 3 1/8” between opposite points)
Dance of the Bees (honey, crackers)
Sniff and Scout (clear flavoring extracts (at least 3), plastic containers, cotton balls)
Honeybee Haunts (Honeybee Haunt cards, clipboards, pencils)
Sharing Circle (hexagonal pieces of paper, pencils)

Supplemental Reference Materials (Honeybee Haunt Card, Anatomy of a Worker Honeybee, Comb Shapes, Honeybee Look-Alikes, Life of a Honeybee Worker, Bee Bodies, Wagging Dance, Circle Dance)

Additional Reading/Resources
Apis mellifera: a.k.a. Honeybee, by Rick Green, Branden Press, 2002.
The Queen Must Die and Other Affairs of Bees and Men, by William Longwood, et.al., W.W. Norton, 1988.
The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees, by Karl Von Frisch, Harvard University Press, 1993.
NOVA video: Tales from the Hive.
ELF Corner Hexagons from Vermont Nature Spring, 2006.
ELF Corner "What's with Wasp Nests?" from Vermont Nature Winter, 2000.
High resolution photographs and scanning electron micrographs of honeybees from Brent Boerger of Essex Junction - Summit Street School ELF. (as a pdf file)

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Honeybees
* Word document * pdf file

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching Suggestions
Ahead of time: Contact a local bee keeper and arrange to borrow a frame with comb and a bunch of dead bees. (Many worker bees die in early spring and can be found just outside the hive.)

You might want to dress someone up as a bee to introduce the marvelous adaptations!

Puppet Show
Remember, honeybees are brown and golden, not black and yellow like bumblebees.

A Closer Look
Bring Golden Guide to Insects to help you answer questions about wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, bumblebees and solitary bees.

Kids want to know about stinging. How it works, what to do afterwards, why bees do it.

Point out propolis (hard, reddish brown material) on frames. This is bee glue. It is collected from the sticky leaf buds of some plants and is used to hold the honeycomb together.

Comb Shapes Extension
For older students, have them “Bee Engineers” and calculate the area of a 3 inch circle and of a hexagon that measures 3.3 inches from point to point. These should be equal. Now have the students place their circles and hexagons on 8 ½ x 11 paper. Of which shape can the students fit more on the paper? Have students calculate the fraction (or percentage) of the paper that is wasted if fitting circles on the sheet and compare this to the fraction of paper wasted when hexagons are fitted onto the paper.

Honeybee Haunts
If the school yard has no flowering plants or trees, a neighborhood walk may reveal some, as well as visiting bees. The leader might also bring in a few flowering plants to place at different locations in the school yard before the class in hopes of attracting bee scouts.

Snack ideas
Crackers and real honey OR different flavors of honey in plastic tubes OR honeycomb cereal.

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas:

• Honeybees are amazing insects capable of gathering flower nectar to produce honey.
• Honeybees construct marvelously designed cells in their hives that are both strong and efficient.
• In a beehive, there is a very orderly division of labor. Three different types of bees perform all of the jobs within a hive: queen, drones, workers.
• A worker honeybee's body is designed to perform many different tasks.
• The cells of a beehive are hexagonal (six-sided), a design that makes efficient use of space and wax.
• Honeybees have a well-developed form of communication that contributes to the hive's success.

Vocabulary:
honeybees, nectar, pollen, queen bee, worker bee, drone, antennae, compound eyes, mandibles, tongue, wings, stinger, wax glands, legs, hexagon, beehive, cells, orientation (definitions)

Skills:

• Active listening to compare and contrast the roles of worker bees, queen bee, and drones in a beehive
• Using a hand lens to examine the structural designs of honeybee bodies and beehive cells
• Comparing different possible shapes for cells of a beehive to determine the most efficient shape in terms of space and strength
• Using one's senses and role-playing to become familiar with the language that bees use to communicate the location of pollen and nectar
• Observing bees at work outdoors

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30) Honeybees are living animals that need food water, and air to survive. They live in a hive with many other bees.

Grades 1-2 (S30, S38) Honeybees have body parts that enable them to perform tasks needed to survive in the environment they live in.

Grades 3-4 (S30, S38) Honeybees have physical and behavioral characteristics that help enable them to meet their needs and to contribute to the survival of their hive.

Grades 5-6 (S30, S38) Honeybees are Insects with unique physical and behavioral characteristics that make it possible for them to survive as part of an interdependent colony of bees.

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