Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

40 minutes

Part B: Secondary Research – Are All Bees The Same?

60+ minutes

Part C: Primary Research – Looking For Native Bees And Other Insect Pollinators

60+ minutes

Part D: Turn Results Into Actions For Native Bees

10 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions:

Students will...

understand the difference between European honey bees and Australian native bees
recognise the value of native bees to both the natural environment and to agriculture.

Success criteria:

Students can...

distinguish between an Australian native bee and a European honey bee
draw conclusions about research results, propose actions in response to results and communicate findings and proposed actions.

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

Begin this lesson by inviting students to complete a 3-2-1 bridge activity based on the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Three thoughts or ideas you have about bees
Two questions you have about bees
One concern or worry you have about bees

Once complete, invite volunteers to share some of their responses with the class (you could also prepare your own responses in order to begin the sharing process).

Through this process lead students to the question:

Did anyone have any ideas, questions or concerns about native bees?

If they did, invite them to share and record these ideas.

You can then explain to students that in this lesson they will be looking at native bees in detail by conducting both primary and secondary research.

Part B: Secondary research - Are all bees the same?

Step 1

Display the following images (also available here) and invite students to engage in a brief class discussion around the following questions:

What do you know about the bees in these images?
What do you notice about these bees?
Suggested answers: Different colours, different sizes, different shapes.

Once students have had the chance to share their thoughts, read the following:

This bee in image 1 is a European honey bee. We have lots of them in Australia and they’ve been here for about 190 years. Many of these bees are managed by bee farmers (apiarists) who keep the bees to produce honey and do important pollination work. Without these bees we would miss out on a lot of the foods that we eat. It is thought that about two-thirds of Australia’s agricultural production benefits from European honey bee pollination (source).

The bees in the other three images are Australian native bees. Did you know that here in Australia we have between 1600 and 2000 different species of native bees? Some of them look a bit like the European honey bee, while others look nothing like them. Some are multicoloured, some are tiny, some are all one colour, and others don’t have a sting. There’s a lot to learn and be excited about with native bees!

For example, one of the most amazing things about bees that you may not know is that the female bees do most of the hard work, both in and out of the hive. The queen and the maiden bees are all female. The job of the queen is to lay the eggs, while the job of the maidens is to build and look after the hive, collect the nectar and pollen, and feed and look after the eggs, the queen and the drones. The only males in the hive are the drones - their job is to help fertilise the eggs.

You could briefly share the images in this Native Bee Visual Explainer with students to show them some of the native bees that live in Australia.

Step 2

Explain to students that they are going to work as a class to create a class library about Australian native bees.

Students will work in groups to conduct and compile research into native bees. The class can then decide how they would like to store and present this information.

Note: This library could be something that you make available to other members of your school community, including other students and teachers, or interested parents. You will need to decide if you want to create a physical library or an online platform – such as Padlet – where you store the information that students collect and collate.

Step 3

Break the class into groups of three or four students and ensure that each student and group has access to the Student Worksheet.

Each group should work together to conduct research in order to comprehensively answer the following questions. This means they should find as much as they can to support their answers, and not just stick with a single sentence answer.

Note: If time is limited, you could divide the questions between the groups.

How many different types of native bees are Australian scientists aware of?
How many different types of European honey bees do we have in Australia?
How are native bees different to honey bees in terms of:
- Appearance
- How they live (solitary or social) and how this is reflected in the structure of hive/nest they construct
- Having stings
- How far they travel to forage (their foraging range)
How are they the same - why are they both important as pollinators?
How are bees different from wasps?
How are bees different from other pollinators?
What is special about native bees and our native plants?
Bees appear to have personalities - can you find out anything about the different personalities of native bees?
What are some of the more well-known native bees? (Tip: look at some of the bees on this page)
What actions can we take in our own gardens to help native bees? (Students should look at broad actions, such as planting plants that are attractive to native bees or building bee hotels – they will have the chance to explore these actions in more detail later in the lesson.)

In addition to answering the questions, groups should also aim to collect the following:

Images
Maps
Links to clips
Links to useful websites
Useful factsheets or documents produced by other groups or organisations

Remind students of the Online Search Strategies when conducting research online, and ensure students include references and sources for materials they collect.

Suggested online resources for students to include in their library:

In addition, you could share this list of interesting facts about bees to inspire students and to include in your library:

Native Bee Facts
Some Interesting Facts About Bees

Step 4

Once groups have had time to answer the questions and collect their materials relating to native bees, spend some time working as a class to decide which materials will be included in your library and what your library will look like (e.g. online or a physical folder of materials or a display book with clear pockets).

Part C: Primary research – Looking for native bees and other insect pollinators

Step 1

Explain to students that in the next part of this lesson they will be doing a survey of insect pollinators in their own schoolyard. Explain to students that native bees aren’t always easy to observe: they can be abundant in certain years and hard to find in others (such as during a wet spring). Their absence or presence based on seasonal variations is natural, and hopefully, students will see some native bees during their observations. However, in case the season you are in doesn’t suit native bees, it would be useful to focus your observations on all insect pollinators - bees are not the only important pollinators in the garden!

Before you begin, spend some time familiarising yourselves with the following information with students:

While you might be focusing on native bees, you will be visiting sites where there will probably be European honey bees, which are known to sting. Find out how to be safe around bees with the Bee Safe Factsheet.
Identifying native bees can be tricky, especially when you’ve never done it before. Because we are so used to thinking of bees as being like European honey bees, we can overlook the other insects that may be other types of bees, not to mention the other pollinators you might also see. The following documents have images of native bees and other common insect pollinators:
- Which Native Bees Are In Your Area? - Aussie Bee
- Pollinator Insects of the South West Slopes of NSW and North East Victoria (useful Australia-wide)
Native Pollinator Key - this can be used to help you distinguish between bees and other pollinators
Different types of flowers will attract different insects - familiarise yourself with the different types of flower shapes included on the Insect Pollinator Observation Sheet.
Remind students that if they do see any bees collecting pollen or nectar, these will be the maidens!
Before heading outside with students it can be a good idea to establish some guidelines for being outdoors. This document can help you: Outdoor Learning Tips.

Step 2

You will now select some sites where you will observe bees and other insects. As a class, take a walk around the yard and identify at least three places where you observe lots of bees and other insects. (Tip: look for flowering plants!)

If you can’t find any sites within your schoolyard, you may have to look just outside the school grounds by visiting a local park.

Record the location of each site and write a description of each site on the Insect Pollinator Observation Sheet. This includes recording information such as:

Consider creating a map of the sites you visit, either by hand or using Google Maps.

Invite students to keep a good record of the sites you visit and the features of each site – all this information can be added to your native bee library.

Step 3

Once you have identified your sites, you can make a plan for visiting each site and conducting observation sessions. Try to pick at least three sessions (this could be over a week or a month) and aim for different times of the day. In this way, students will be able to observe if bees and other pollinators are more active at different times.

Ensure students have the copy of the Insect Pollinator Observation Sheet that they worked on earlier.

Observing native bees (and other pollinators) in their natural habitats can be an exercise in patience as they can be small and can move very quickly, making them hard to keep track of. An interesting way of focusing on bees and other pollinators is to observe the way that they move. This can help you to identify the pollinators you are observing as different bees move in different ways. A fun way to do this could be to work with students to reimagine the bee movements as a dance. Talk about the movements you are observing and encourage students to take notes about these movements (discourage students from acting out these movements around the bees, remembering that it’s better to stay calm near bees).

Step 4

Once you have visited your sites at least three times, work as a class to analyse the results. You could consider the following questions in your analysis (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How many different insect species did you observe at each site? How many overall?
How many of these insects would you be confident to categorise as native bees?
What plants did the native bees (and other insects) appear to prefer?
What did you observe about the native bees?
How were they similar or different to European honey bees or other insects?
What things stood out for you about native bees?
What behaviours did you observe – did they move about the flowers and plants in the same ways as other bees?
What other interesting observations did you make during your surveys?

You could briefly discuss answers as a class and then invite students to work independently to record their own answers in their own words on the Student Worksheet. This work could be submitted for assessment.

Note: The numbers and types of native bees and other insects that you see can vary according to where you live, the weather, the season, the time of day, and the plants at your survey site. Don’t be disheartened if you didn’t see many – this is good motivation to take action for native bees in your area!

Take it further

Part D: Turn results into actions for native bees

Step 1

Take a moment to invite students to imagine that they will have the chance to repeat the native bee survey in five years time – what could be done right now to change the number of native bees observed and recorded in five years?

Lead students to the idea that by improving habitats for native bees, they can increase the number of native bees visiting their school.

Explain that they will now make their own plan to help native bees at their school. Invite students to return to your native bee library and to look for any information they found about how we can help native bees. Suggest to students that actions for increasing native bee numbers will broadly fall into two groups:

Planting for native bees
Building native bee hotels - bee hotel requirements are very specific and important, the Solitary Bee Homes factsheet has more information

Step 2

Break the class into an even number of groups and assign each group as either a 1 or a 2, based on the two groups above. Each group needs to undertake research into their assigned action, and to start developing a plan for bringing their idea to life. This plan should include the following information (these points are also available on the Student Worksheet):

The following links might be useful in supporting students with their research:

The results of student research can be collated, and copies can be added to the native bee library.

Step 3

In addition to making a plan for improving native bee habitats at your school, students will also need to create a communication piece to help the school community understand the value of native bees.

Students can use the information in their class library to create a communication piece (e.g. factsheet, poster, pocket guide or blog post). The aim for the communication piece (also available on the Student Worksheet) is to:

Share key facts about native bees
Explain why native bees are important
Explain the proposed actions students want to take and how they plan to do it
Ask for support/materials (if applicable)
Provide links to further information (including links to native bee library, if applicable/suitable).

If working in groups/as a class to produce a communication piece, you could have students work independently on the first two tasks – rough drafts could be submitted for assessment before being incorporated into the final communication pieces.

Alternatively, students could work independently to produce individual communication pieces that could be submitted for assessment.

Step 4

Optional

An important part of real-world learning, such as in this project, is the opportunity for students to present their learning in a public arena. This could mean:

Holding a stall to share the communication pieces and ideas for improving native bee habitats; or
Preparing an article for the newsletter about students’ proposals; or
Creating a podcast about what students are doing and why to share with the school community; or
Creating a short film or series of films about bee dances and holding a small film festival to share with an audience.

Note: If students do choose to make a short film based on bee dances, consider practising your bee dances in an indoor space (away from actual bees). Begin by inviting kids to think carefully about how bees move through space, for example, high, medium and low (levels), front-to-back planes, and side-to-side planes. Encourage students to use their hands to demonstrate the different ways they move across these levels and planes, and to incorporate movements such as long sweeping curves, erratic turns and direction changes, or fast and direct movements. Some European bees wriggle as they gather nectar. Some disappear into the flower completely. See if you can incorporate some of these movements into your hand dances. You could also extend this activity by inviting your students to suggest what types of music would work well to accompany the pollinator dancers.

This link has videos of bees in action; these may be a useful source of inspiration for students.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to complete the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Three thoughts or ideas you have about bees
Two questions you have about bees
One wish or dream you have for bees

Investigating Native Bees

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Summary

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