Honey Bee, What Do You Do For Me?

Have you ever looked closely at a honeybee and wondered why they are so important? What jobs do they do? How do they affect me? During this webquest, you will find the answers to these questions and you might start asking your own. Before you begin, make sure you have your research worksheet handy.

With your partner, you will explore the importance of honey bees. On your exploration of honey bees, you will be completing a graphic organizer to show your knowledge. Make notes of important facts and interesting details as you explore the webquest. You will use this organizer to help complete your final project.

After you explore the webquest, you and your partner will create a model showcasing why honey bees are important. Your model can be 3-D, a drawing, or a short picture book. If you think of another way to model your knowledge, ask for permission before you begin working on your model. After the class has finished their models, you will present it to the class. In your model and presentation, you must use facts learned from this webquest. You are telling the class how important honey bees are! Use your thinking caps and be creative!

Using your graphic organizer, use the links below to find why honey bees are important to plants, people, and produce. 

What's the buzz about bees? 

Take a look at this website and take notes on your graphic organizer about honey bees. 

Honey bees have more importance than some people realize. Honey bees are important in several different ways. Take a look at honey bees and jot down important facts.

Honey bees account for nearly 80% of crop pollination in the United States of America, because of the ease of transporting colonies across the country (although increasingly, some solitary bee species and bumblebees are being reared for pollination).  Honey bees are actively pollinating at least somewhere in North America during every month of the year!

Honey bees have been trained to act as bomb detectors!  Scientists have trained honey bees to react to minute amounts of chemicals found in explosives.  Trainers reward honey bees with sugar water when they correctly sense a particular explosive compound, such that the bees automatically stick out their tongues in expectation of a reward when they correctly sense the compound. 

Honey Bee Pollination is Convenient

The practice of beekeeping has meant that large numbers of honey bees are available to farmers, and can be transported from one field to another. Even the timing can be controlled. It has led to the development of a whole industry based around honey bee pollination. Some beekeepers specialise in this service. 

Historically, a Lack of Knowledge About Other Pollinators

Honey bees are one of the most intensely studied creatures on the planet, with a whole group of people (beekeepers) interested in their welfare. In reality, this means there is limited understanding about specific insects and their efficiency, in pollinating different crops.

However, things are beginning to change, and other bees, such as bumblebees and leafcutter bees, are being used to help increase agricultural production.  Bumblebees have been used to pollinate tomatoes for some years.  Partly this is due to increasing recognition of the importance of other bee species, coupled with research in this area.  Perhaps also, it is due to fears about overreliance on the honey bee. 

There is also a growing movement to help farmers understand how they can encourage local native pollinators onto their land, by providing nest boxes for solitary bees.

Bumblebee colonies can also be purchased, but has sometimes led to negative consequences when a commercially reared species has been moved from one region to another (not natural to it), taking with them diseases that have impacted upon the local native species.

To make sure you understand the importance of honey bees, click on this website and answer the questions. Record your answers on a sheet of paper. Remember to put your name on the paper and turn it in to the science basket. The teacher will check your answers. 

“Honey Bee Facts.” BuzzAboutBees.net, www.buzzaboutbees.net/honey-bee-facts.html.

“Honey Bee Pollination.” BuzzAboutBees.net, www.buzzaboutbees.net/honey-bee-pollination.html.“Honey Bee Pollination.” BuzzAboutBees.net, www.buzzaboutbees.net/honey-bee-pollination.html.

Teachers,

Encourage your students to think out of the box for this research project! At the end of the webquest, you could have students participate in a debate on why honey bees are important. Students can use the information found in the webquest and extend their knowledge with further research themselves. 

This webquest follows the Louisiana State Standard of: 

3-LS2--1

Construct an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model.