Project Overview
Commodities
- Animals: bees
- Animal Products: honey
Practices
- Crop Production: beekeeping, pollination, pollinator habitat, pollinator health
- Education and Training: demonstration, display, participatory research, technical assistance, workshop, youth education
- Natural Resources/Environment: habitat enhancement
- Pest Management: prevention
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, public participation, social capital
Abstract:
Britt Hopper presented “Bees 101” to introduce the history of the honeybee and its fascinating role as pollinator and honey maker to over 3,000 youth. With educational collaborators, Apiarist Hopper created honeybee handouts to help students retain the information he demonstrated about bees and honey produce. As an aid to their grade level science curriculum, the handouts help classroom educators teach Kansas youth about bee colony collapse, beekeeping, as well as the broader sustainability issues of man’s impact on the environment of the bees and ultimately on our fragile island home—planet Earth. In addition, Hopper Bees website is completed and running; you can see it here: http://beehopper.buzz
Project objectives:
By presenting “Bees 101” to youth in schools and community organizations, students will:
- indicate greater awareness of the role and challenges of apiarists and their pollinators;
- take sustainable action to help the bees and ultimately humans by planting prairie perennials and vegetables needing pollination;
- explore keeping bees;
- demonstrate transformative and meaningful understanding of the role bees play in the world and their plight, as well as knowledge of varied careers as apiarists.