Teachers and students looking for help? Here it is.
School visits by experts, teaching materials, help with lesson planning

Beekeepers willing to visit schools
  1   M.J.Buckle, B.Sc., P.G.C.E. with 30 years secondary teaching experience and recent experience with first school pupils. Leave an e-mail using the CONTACTS page.

 

Teaching materials - the BBKA Schools Pack
Some primary schools have problems implementing the science element of the curriculum.
The BBKA Schools Pack offers help and good ideas in this area. 
It was produced by a team headed by qualified teachers who are also beekeepers. 
The association carries a small stock of the Pack. Use the contact page to ask for one.
Latest price is £10, for a loose leaf file of teacher guidance, pictures, notes, activity sheets, all copiable for class use and all produced by qualified people.
Or you can buy direct from The BBKA. Just look at their website by searching for BBKA.

 

Suggested lesson ideas for primary schools, involving bees and bee produce.
Ideally access to watch beehives and the help of a beekeeper are required if you intend direct study of Honey bees, but there are many activities which do not involve hives or specialist help.
If you look at http://www.martinatnewton.com/ you will find instructions for adapting a garden gazebo so that children can watch a beehive from inside it in relative safety.

Activities not requiring access to honey bee hives:

1. Map the crops and pasture being grown in farm fields in the area of the school. Find out what significance bees have for these crops and whether bees can get food from them.
2. Provide homes for solitary bees by setting up suitable nest hole sites for them around the school (solitary bees are not dangerous - see the page IS IT A BEE and the instructions on artificial nest sites at the end of the page GADGETS GIZMOS AND GOOD IDEAS ) This should provide observations of bees coming and going at certain times of year and  filling holes with their brood. It has the merit that once set up it will work for years without attention. Note the dates you see bees and they can be relied on to re-appear at the same times next year.
3. Sit on a chair and observe bee visits to any flowers around the school, both in flower beds and as "weeds". make notes about how the bees behave and the frequency of visits on days with different weather and temperature. Bees that are foraging will take no notice of observers who keep still and watch.
4. Compare which types of bees prefer which flowers in a mixed flowerbed. Bumble bees will probably choose differently to honey and solitary bees. This is easiest done if you prepare a simple chart with type of bee as columns and kind of flower as rows, then tick a box for every bee visit over a measured time.
5. Make sketches or notes about the colours of bumble bees and see how many different kinds visit your area.
6. Look for other insects that mimic bee appearance or behaviour as a way of protecting themselves Observing an ivy hedge in flower in the early autumn is particularly good for this - you will see bees, wasps and several different mimics.



Activities requiring access to honey bee hives:

1. Watching a hive entrance, count bees arriving and bees leaving in one minute, Compare results taken on different days when weather and temperature varies. Suggest how to explain your results. can you devise ways to check if you are right?
2. Watch a hive entrance and count bees bringing home pollen on their legs. Note what proportion of the total carry pollen. Note the colours of the pollen seen and try to find out what colour pollen comes from different flowers in the area by checking the plants. (bees need pollen for production of food for brood, so pollen arriving is a good sign that there is a queen laying and developing young bees in the hive.
3. If you can watch a beekeeper open and take apart a beehive, there will be no shortage of things to learn and questions to ask.