about abuzz for honey bees
I started Abuzz for Honey Bees (AHB) as my Girl Scout Gold Award Project. I have always had a passion for nature and the environment. When I heard about the honey bee crisis, I felt called to help. I was driven to use my project to help address this issue at the local and global level. After all, mankind desperately needs honey bees for pollination, honey bee byproducts (honey, royal jelly, propolis, bee pollen, and beeswax), and most importantly-food. Since elementary school students are the next generation of conservationists and beekeepers, I decided to focus on creating kid-friendly honey bee lesson plans and pollinator gardens. In order to broaden the audience of my project for parents and the entire community, I created a follow-up honey bee lesson brochure along with this website. My goal is to make accessing and teaching honey bee conservation information as easy as possible. After all, as more people gain awareness of the honey bee crisis, more people will take action to promote honey bee conservation.
Since honey bee conservation has huge significance to local and global communities, I aspire to widen AHB's scope of outreach through partnering with as many community organizations as possible (see current community partners below). I hope to use AHB's educational programs to ensure that honey bees are avid pollinators for generations to come. Please help my mission by sharing the AHB lesson materials and honey bee conservation information.
-Savannah Bowers, Troop 889
Since honey bee conservation has huge significance to local and global communities, I aspire to widen AHB's scope of outreach through partnering with as many community organizations as possible (see current community partners below). I hope to use AHB's educational programs to ensure that honey bees are avid pollinators for generations to come. Please help my mission by sharing the AHB lesson materials and honey bee conservation information.
-Savannah Bowers, Troop 889
Abuzz for honey bees is made possible by our community partners (Below) which help us spread the "Buzz" about honey bees.
Community PArtNeRS:
1.) Tidewater Beekeepers Association (TBA): Mr. Hodgie Holgersen, TBA member and Master Beekeeper, allowed me to do a hive inspection and get "up close and personal" with his honey bees (shown below); this served as background research for the AHB lesson curriculum. TBA also gave me a variety of educational resources in order to further my background research, and TBA fact-checked the AHB instructional guides. TBA continues to play a major role in the AHB mission through providing AHB instructional guides to supplement their beekeeper talks at local schools, scout organizations, garden clubs, and other community organizations. Below is a link to TBA's website if you would like additional information about the organization (their meetings are free and open to the public if you're interested in learning about honey bees):
http://www.tidewaterbeekeepers.net/
http://www.tidewaterbeekeepers.net/
2.) Norfolk Christian's Lower School (NCS): NCS 2nd grade teachers allowed me to try out the AHB curriculum with their students and gave me constructive feedback (shown below). Getting to teach the students was a blast because they were so curious and fascinated by honey bees. Norfolk Christian helps sustain the AHB mission through using the AHB curriculum year after year and expanding the pollinator garden that was installed. NCS's use of the AHB curriculum will instill a sense of environmental responsibility and interest in honey bee conservation in many generations to come.
https://www.norfolkchristian.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Deeper-Learning-Handout-Ambassador-article.pdf
https://www.norfolkchristian.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Deeper-Learning-Handout-Ambassador-article.pdf
3.) Norfolk Beekeepers Association (NBA): I presented the AHB curriculum to NBA at one of their meetings (shown below), and they really liked the curriculum's creative approach to teaching about honey bees. Similar to the Tidewater Beekeepers Association, Norfolk Beekeepers agreed to provide AHB instructional guides and access to AHB lesson materials during their free community beekeeping presentations. Norfolk Beekeepers also posted a link to the AHB curriculum on their website.
http://www.norfolkbeekeepers.net/Library%20Listings.html
http://www.norfolkbeekeepers.net/Library%20Listings.html
4.) Beekeepers' Guild of Southeast Virginia: The Guild is a regional organization for beekeepers of all skill levels to share their knowledge with other beekeepers and further own knowledge. The Guild sponsors several local events (such as The Honey Bee Festival at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens) in order to share its knowledge about honey bees with the public and spread awareness about he importance of honey bees as key pollinators. The Guild partnered with AHB through allowing me to present the AHB curriculum at one of their meetings (with about 50 members present). The Guild agreed to share the AHB curriculum through their website and other public outreach.
https://beekeepersguild.org/images/pdf/Beeline201809.pdf
5.)The Pollinator Partnership: The Pollinator Partnership is a national organization that works "to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research" in North America and throughout the world. It is the largest nonprofit in the world dedicated "exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems". The Pollinator Partnership posted links to the AHB curriculum on the Learning Center page of their Resources tab. In fact, the AHB curriculum on their website is the first link that will appear if you google "Abuzz for Honey Bees". Due to the masive scope of The Pollinator Partnership, a link on their website allows people from all over the world to access the AHB curriculum.
https://pollinator.org/learning-center/education
https://beekeepersguild.org/images/pdf/Beeline201809.pdf
5.)The Pollinator Partnership: The Pollinator Partnership is a national organization that works "to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research" in North America and throughout the world. It is the largest nonprofit in the world dedicated "exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems". The Pollinator Partnership posted links to the AHB curriculum on the Learning Center page of their Resources tab. In fact, the AHB curriculum on their website is the first link that will appear if you google "Abuzz for Honey Bees". Due to the masive scope of The Pollinator Partnership, a link on their website allows people from all over the world to access the AHB curriculum.
https://pollinator.org/learning-center/education
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Spread the Buzz about Bees.
Spread the Buzz about Bees.