Sunday, May 11, 2014

Media Monday - Bees

Grade Level: K-6
This month's media collection is all about bees. These videos cover the most important information about bees, including how they are quickly vanishing and how we can help them. They also show everyday people interacting with bees while highlighting their importance.
      These two videos go to together to provide a thorough explanation of bees and their lives. Many of the videos on bees available through Youtube feature speech that is highly technical, but the language in this video is easy for students to understand. Unfamiliar terms are followed by explanations and the information is well organized.
where bees live, how bees reproduce, how bees communicate, what bees eat, why bees are important (pollination & honey production)

               Bee Swarm Capture
      Here you can see a beekeeper at work in an urban setting. A beekeeper is called in to deal with a bee swarm. This crucial moment in the bee life cycle is captured in high quality. Student can discuss the importance of a bee swarm and what to do if one encounters a bee swarm.
bee swarm, pheromones, starting a new hive.
This video covers the recent plummet in bee population. It explores several reasons why bees may be dying all over the world. If paused along the way, students can illustrate percentages, make predictions about why bees are dying, make predictions about what the implications might be, and discuss solutions.
rate of bee population decline, possible reasons, implications

                SSE – Community Bee Garden
Students at an elementary school in Ireland create a bee garden to promote biodiversity. The students plant plants in the garden and set up a bee structure in this video set to music. It’s a great way to explore how such a garden might help the bee population and it may spark a similar school project.
how to help bees

                  How to Help Bees in Your Garden
      This video answers the questions of what we can do to help bees and introduces several lesser known types of bees.
how to help bees, bumblebees, solitary bees
             
                  Mason Bees Micro Documentary
This video shows great examples of two types of solitary bees – masonry and leaf cutter. While there are a few second of material not appropriate for kids (1:06-1:11), this can be easily remedied by covering the screen or projecting device for a few seconds (it’s visual, not audio).
solitary bees, masonry bees, leaf cutter bees

                  How It’s Made: Honey
Students often wonder how bees make honey. This video shows the process from pollen to honey bottle. Most of the processing in this video is done commercially by machine.
pollen collection, honey making, honey extraction, honey bottling

         Honey Extraction
      This video takes you from uncapping to bottling. It shows a regular couple doing this in this kitchen at home. While the above video shows commercial production, this video brings it much closer to home. Seeing honey production from this perspective shows students that making honey is far from complicated and out of their reach. It can in fact be part of everyday life. Pausing the video along the way creates time for students to make observations about the process. Questions such as why does that work? Or why do they do that? Help students think through the process.
uncapping, extracting, and storing
      These two videos can be used to supplement other videos on how to extract honey. It shows alternative ways of removing wax from a hive frame. Viewing this video along with other videos on honey extraction is a great way to engage students’ higher level thinking skills. Students can compare methods and determine which is better for what purpose.

And that's all folks! I hope you find these videos useful!

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