the bee jess prinsen

hand drawings

Bees belong to the same order as wasps. Like wasps, bees have mouth parts with a long tongue that is suited for gathering nectar from a greater variety of flowers. The bee's eyes, like those of other insects, differ from human eyes. They consist of a pair of compound eyes made up of numerous six-sided facets plus three simple eyes. Picture from Bugscope. Magnified 42 times. Up close view of the mouth, tongue, and eye.

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans. A single hive contains approximately 40-45,000 bees. Bees fly an average of mph. Bees are not fast fliers; while their wings beat over 11,000 cycles per minute, their flight speed averages only 15 miles per hour.

Bees have feathery body hairs, also known as plumose. Females have brushes on their legs, and they use them to remove pollen that sticks to these body hairs. The pollen is then stored under the abdomen or on the hind legs. Picture from Bugscope. Magnified 320 times. Up close view of the body hairs, or plumose.

3 Types of Bees The Worker The worker bee gathers food for the hive, cleans the hive and helps rear the young. The worker bee collects nectar and water through its long mouthpiece called a proboscis. Its tongue is used to suck the nectar from the flowers. On its hind legs there are pollen 'baskets' to carry the pollen back to the hive. The Drone These are the future fathers. Their only task is to mate with the Queen bee. Once the drone mates with the Queen bee he dies. Drones have no other real purpose. They cannot forage because their mouthpieces are too short for collecting nectar. They cannot make pollen. They cannot defend the hive because they have no sting. They cannot make beeswax. The Queen Bee The queen is the largest bee and each normal colony has only one. Her sole purpose is to lay eggs. She is the mother of the hive. She leaves the hive only to mate or when the hive reproduces by swarming. Her body is especially formed for egg-laying. Fertilized eggs hatch into larvae. These grub-like larvae become either workers or queens. Larvae who are fed Royal jelly only during rearing become the queens.

websites and literature NOVA Online: Tales from the Hive Provides a summary of and information from the NOVA documentary Tales from the Hive. Good links, well-organized, reputable source. University of California-Riverside Department of Entomology This Department of Entomology provides an in depth look at the life cycle of bees and their effects on the environment. The Honey Bee By James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould. New York: Scientific American Library, A well-illustrated primer including chapters on beekeeping, communication, navigation, flower learning, evolution of the dance, and more. The Honeybee and the Robber: A Moving Picture Book by Eric Carle. New York: Philomel Books, An engaging and inventive pop-up book that takes you through one worker bee's quest to get back to her hive. The Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive by Joanna Cole, Illustrated by Bruce Degen. New York: Scholastic, Ms. Frizzle's students morph into honeybees, and the magic school bus turns into a beehive. This title is a delightful and informative look at life in a hive. Learn about honey making, bee communication, and honeybee society.

nses for bugscope Life Science Grades K-4 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANISMS Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking. Bugscope can be used to fulfill this standard as the electron microscope shows great detail of insect structure. Students would be able to see the distinct body structures up close that a specific insect uses for growth, survival, and reproduction.

technology and curriculum By using hand lenses, microscopes, and Bugscope (ESEM), students can be actively involved in meaningful exercises. For example, students can be asked to draw a defining structure of an insect using the three “technologies” to see which technology gives the clearest view as to why this structure is important to the insect. Bugscope can be used across the curriculum as a creative writing prompt (a journal entry after viewing the 300 x eye of an insect), an art project (model what your skin would look like at this magnification), or even as a math lesson. For math, student can work on their multiplication and division skills by working with the microscope technologies. The various magnifications can be incorporated into math class and making accurate calculations.