University of Hawai‘i Honeybee Project
The UH Honeybee Project researches honeybee health and survival in Hawai‘i. Lead researcher Ethel Villalobos and her team provide a number of resources for outreach and education related to their projects and to bees in general. Are you interested in incorporating honeybees into your classroom teaching and learning? Here are some possible connections!
Do plants depend on animals to survive (2-LS2-2)? Read about pollinators in Hawai‘i, food plants that are pollinated by honeybees, and how gardens can help pollinators. Use this information to develop a model of how animals pollinate plants.
What do the lives of bees look like (3-LS1-1)? Watch this video about the life cycle of bees. Compare the life cycle of bees to other organisms, including the butterflies mentioned in the video, and develop a model to describe the life cycles of organisms.
What external structures do different pollinators have that help them survive (4-LS1-1)? Learn more about different pollinators in Hawai‘i, especially looking at their physical features. You can learn more about bees specifically in this video. Use this information to construct arguments about how pollinators use their physical features to survive.
How do pollinators’ behaviors provide an ecosystem service (MS-LS1-4) and how can we ensure these ecosystem services are maintained (MS-LS2-5)? Read aboutpollinators in Hawai‘i, food plants that are pollinated by honeybees, and how gardens can help pollinators. Watch this video about the life cycle of bees, this video about deformed wing virus, and this video about the small hive beetle. Use this information to construct an argument about how the behaviors of pollinators support the survival of plants and consider design solutions that could maintain pollinator’s ecosystem services, while they are facing different threats.
Related lesson resources If standards are not noted, the lesson may not be fully aligned to NGSS and may need to be adapted.
Pollination Station – GRC (2-LS2-2)
Pulelehua Pollinators – GRC (MS-LS-1-4)
Hand Pollinator Activity – STEM Pre-Academy (2-LS2-2)
Pollinator Orchid Models – STEM Pre-Academy