Honey Bee Presentation

Are you a teacher, scout leader, homeschooler, or a group of young people who want to learn about honeybees?  I am the Youth Outreach Coordinator for the BYBA (Backyard Beekeepers Association).  If you would like a presentation for your classroom (Fairfield County, CT) or at my farm in Easton, CT, you may contact me!  

The honeybee is the only insect that produces a food that humans eat.  But more important than producing honey is its role in agriculture.  The pollination of fruit trees, seed crops and greenhouse plants would not be possible without the honeybee. 

Honeybees live in social groups called colonies.  Each colony consists of one queen (who lays all the eggs),  female workers, (average 30,000 in spring and summer) and a few hundred drones, the male bees. 

This is an observation hive.  Live bees can come to your classroom in complete safety!

With a magnifying lens, you can see the larva in the cells.
Why are the cells hexagonal in shape?
Did you know that bees are great mathematicians?

This is a Langstroth long hive.  It's easier to observe the development of brood in a hive like this. 

On our farm in Easton, we have traditional hive bodies set up on cinder blocks.

Protective clothing is important! 

If you can't make it to the farm, a hive body filled with frames with images of bee activity can come to your classroom! 

This frame shows brood hatching.

This frame shows a queen cell.

There are also bees in plastic resin, for those classrooms that prefer not to have live bees. 

I have several posters with great pictures and information that can be shared.

Want to learn a bee dance? 

What is special about beeswax? 

How do worker bees know what chores to do in the hive? 

Presentations can be tailored to your interest and age group.

After School Science: Polymers

What words do you know that start with Poly-? 

Polygon,  Polyester  (responses I received from eight 3-5 graders) 

Poly-"many" in Greek 

Mer - "parts" in Greek

Polymer- a large Molecule made up of long chains of repeating units called monomers.

Water Storing Crystals are the polymer, polyacrylamide.  This chemical polymer was first used to absorb water in places where a pump could not be used.  It is also used in agriculture to keep soil moist. 

These creepy crawlers or Gro-beasts are also made of polyacrylamide.  It is also found in super absorbent diapers.

The package of "creepy crawlers" comes with a spider, a scorpion, a cockroach and a centipede.  You could talk about Arthropods here!

The experiment:  Does your grobeast "grow" 600%?  
We measured the length using a ruler (centimeters ) and we used an electric balance in grams.  

You could discuss why scientists use the metric system (it helps to use the same system of measurements if you are sharing your experiment) and why scientists use mass instead of weight  ( I did have one student in my group tell me it's because of gravity!)

I had the students calculate how big their arthropod would get if it "grew" 600%.  This could be a hard concept, but once one student said the 600% is just 6 times the size of it,  they were able to calculate it.  In the case of the spider, it was 4 cm at start and 
9.4 cm after 3 days in water.  If it had grown to 600% it would have been 24 cm ( the diameter of the plate).  Its mass after 3 days went from 2.1 g to 17.8 g,  which is more than 600% by mass.  

Some students in the class had made "slime" before.  It is an example of a cross-linked polymer made from polyvinyl acetate (found in Elmer's glue) and sodium tetraborate ( borax).  Here is the recipe for slime: 

Prepare Borax Solution: 2 Tablespoons of borax into 2 cups of water, stir until dissolved. ( more than enough for 30 students)

Mark a plastic cup at the 20 ml mark by pouring 20 ml of water from graduated cylinder. ( you do not want to get glue out of a graduated cylinder!) Pour glue to the 20 ml mark and add 20 ml of water.  Stir.  You could add food coloring here. 

Add drop wise the borax solution, stirring until a mass of "slime " is formed. Carefully rinse under running water to get rid of excess borax. 

Students can test the properties of their "slime" for:
Stretch-ability
Bounce-ability 
Ability to make a puddle
Print-ability ( use water soluble markers or newspaper print like silly-putty)

***  Please don't let children take home the "slime" unless it is in a plastic baggie and has a warning label taped to it.  You could decide as a group what should be written on the label. 

Example:  Warning:  Do not eat or throw.  Do not place on furniture.  May cause discoloration on clothes. Not suitable for kids under 4. 

If the students are not going straight home, I take the slime back and make one big ball for observation in the classroom.  This especially goes for high school students who have other classes to go to.  Their teachers will appreciate this rule.  

We also looked at these grow capsules made out of synthetic sponge material.  

I included "Magic Sand" in this class because it is hydrophobic, it is not a polymer. The polyacrylamide is hydrophilic.


The polymer, polystyrene can take many forms.  Many students were familiar with styrofoam.  But polystyrene can be hard plastic like for a computer casing, as well as a clear plastic top at the salad bar.   

 The experiment:  Does # 6 plastic (salad lids) shrink just as much as the "Shrink-it" you can buy in the store? 

The package claims it shrinks 60%.

Obtain a piece of "shrink-it".  Sand the entire piece with a medium to fine sandpaper.   We used colored pencils,  but you could experiment with "sharpies" and crayons too. Trace around your piece and measure its width in centimeters.  Place in a toaster oven on a piece of cardboard or Al foil (that is just used for experiments) at 250 degrees and watch very carefully. (Adults only handling plastic) Remove after transformation (no more than 5 minutes). Measure the "after" and do the math! Estimation could also be used here!  Repeat again using a piece of # 6 plastic from a salad top.
Compare!
Recycling plastic could be discussed here!

We are examples of Natural Polymers! DNA
I also passed around some of my Pygora goat's fiber and sheep's wool as examples too! 

Polymers are everywhere!