Through the use of a video and hands-on activities with honeycombs and geometric shapes, the students will learn how bees make honey and why the hexagon is the best basic pattern for the honeycomb.
ITV Series
Magic School Bus #1: The Magic School Bus in a Beehive (Scholastic)
World of Nature: Spreading the Pollen (TV Ontario)
Students will be able to:
Vocabulary:
nectar -- sweet liquid found in many flowershoney -- sweet syrup made by bees and used for food evaporate-to remove
moisture
beehive -- living and working place for bees
honeycomb -- six-sided wax cells where bees keep honey
triangle -- a three-sided figure
square -- a four-sided figure
hexagon -- a six-sided figure
octagon -- an eight-sided figure
Show the students a picture of the school and a scale drawing of the interior. Point out several special rooms (office, classroom, music room, cafeteria) and discuss how the size and arrangement of the room is related to its purpose.
Show the students a picture of the fire department (or some other familiar public building) then discuss how they think the inside would have to be arranged in order to suit its purpose.
Show students pictures of a tree and a commercial beehive. Tell them that these are pictures of special work places. Ask the students what they think would be the purpose of these work places and who would be working? Ask the students what they think it looks like inside the tree and the beehive.
Tell the students they are going to see part of a Magic School Bus field trip. (Be sure they are familiar with the Magic School Bus series. If not, a brief description of Miss Frizzle and the "magic" part would be appropriate.) Describe the story situation. Tell the students a boy was delivering honey from his grandfather's farm when he had an accident and all of the jars of honey were broken. His teacher and classmates set out to help him replace the honey so he can complete his deliveries.
The focus for viewing is a specific responsibility or task(s) students are responsible for during or after watching the video to focus and engage students' viewing attention. Tell the students that they should watch for information about how the bees make honey and what their work place looks like.
Begin the video when the bus arrives at the field of flowers, pause when Linda says "hive at five" and there is a view of the tree through her binoculars. Ask the students what they expect to find inside the tree.
Resume and stop the tape when Linda says, "Wow, it's like a factory in here!" Mention that it was not very wise for Linda to peek into a tree when there were so many bees flying around the opening. Then ask the students what the inside seems to look like. Explain that they are looking at a honeycomb and that certain worker bees make this out of beeswax. Comment on the fact that the cells all seem to be the same shape and have six sides. Show them the picture of the bees on the honeycomb. Point out the shape of the cells and explain that this shape is a hexagon. Show them a picture of a tessellation of hexagons for comparison. Ask the students why they think the bees use hexagons rather than triangles, squares or circles for the honeycomb. After a short discussion without coming to any conclusions, tell them that after watching the video they will do a class activity that will help them to understand why. To return to the video, explain to the students that while some bees make the honeycombs, other bees have different jobs to do. Ask the students what else might have to be done. (gather nectar, make honey, feed the young ones, lay eggs (queen), protect the hive) Say, "Let's see some bees at work and maybe we will learn how they make honey." Resume the video.
Stop the tape when there is a picture of jars of honey and Tim says, "We're in bees-ness." Discuss the way bees make honey being sure that they first understand what nectar is and how it is collected. Give each group a piece of honeycomb. After noting the shape and structure of the honeycomb, allow them to take it apart (with plastic spoons) and taste the honey if they want to.
Review the structure of the honeycomb and remind the students of why they thought this was the best shape for the bees to use. Remind them of the pre-viewing activity about a workplace suitable to the purpose of the activity. Ask the students what they can recall about the purpose of the honeycomb (storing nectar, making honey, and raising larva.) Develop the idea that the honeycomb must be easy to construct, able to hold a lot, and strong enough to be safe for storing their food and raising their young.
Explain that they are going to look at several different patterns which could be used for honeycombs and decide which is the best one. (Use the pictures of tessellated shapes to reinforce your findings.) Tell the students to open the packet of polygons and sort them according to shape. (Note: In this activity, use the appropriate name for each polygon while stressing the connection of the name to the number of sides.) Tell the students to connect all the triangles without leaving any space between them if possible. Then tell them to do the same for the squares, hexagons, and octagons. (Note: there will be space between the octagons.) Ask why they think the octagon would not be a good choice. (The space between the octagons would weaken the honeycomb or require extra beeswax to fill it in.) Ask the students why they think the triangle would be a poor choice. Show them that the capacity (area) is increased as you increase the number of sides. At this point, either the square or the hexagon could be considered. Now, hold up a hexagonal prism and a cube. Tell them that the hexagon is what a "cell" of the honeycomb looks like and that they will now see why it is better than the cube. Have students build a "honeycomb" with the patterns. Then demonstrate how the construction with cubes can easily be knocked down but the hexagonal prisms seem to lock together and the pieces reinforce each other. Tell them to try the same thing with the patterns on their desks so they can see that the squares slide apart and the hexagons do not. End the activity with a discussion about the necessary qualities for the honeycomb. It must be easy to construct, hold a lot, and be a safe place to store food and raise their young.
This experiment will take several days. Review the steps and activities involved in making honey. Discuss what nectar is, where the bee finds it in a flower, and how the bee carries it back to the hive. Ask the students to describe what happens to the nectar which changes it to honey. Discuss the process of evaporation and share students' experience with it. Ask for examples where things became thickened or dry either by heating or fanning. (pudding, fudge, glue, nail polish) Set up an experiment with artificial nectar (highly concentrated sugar-water). Place equal small amounts in several shallow dishes. Set the dishes in the sunniest location in the room. Have the students frequently stir and blow on (as if to cool) some of the samples while the rest are left untouched. Check frequently and record results until the solution(s) thickens. Explain that the syrup is the result of the evaporation of the water in the mixture. Record daily observations. Compare the results of each method, then discuss which was most like the way bees make honey.
Visit a commercial bee-hive or have a bee-keeper come to the classroom. Help the students prepare suitable questions to ask such as, "Why do you raise bees? Is it to make money or just for a hobby? How did you get started? Do you ever get stung? How do you protect yourself? How much of your time does it take? How does a beekeeper get honey that is only from one flower such as clover honey?" Follow up the visit with a "What I liked best" short story about the visit..
Math: HONEY TASTING PARTY: Provide a variety of honey (clover, goldenrod, alfalfa, mixed wildflowers, etc.) for the students to taste. Prepare a bulletin board display of the flowers in the sampling. Use a small amount of each kind of honey on unsalted plain crackers for each student. Working in groups, have the students record their findings using a worksheet. Chart/graph the results for the whole class and prepare a simple consumers opinion report.
Science/Health: BEE VENOM ALLERGY: Ask the school nurse to come to class and talk about what it means to be allergic to bee venom and what must be done to prepare for an emergency situation. If possible, also have a person present who is allergic to bee venom. Prior to the visit, help the students to prepare some questions such as: "How does someone know they are allergic? How much time do they have to get help? What should someone do to help? Is it only an allergy to bees or is that person allergic to all insect bites/stings? How should anyone act if there is a bee around?" Follow up with a simulation skit outside in the play area showing someone getting stung and what the friends can do to get help. Consider that the person stung is not allergic and another case when the person is allergic.
Nature Studies: After viewing the World of Nature: Spreading the Pollen video showing how bees collect pollen and nectar, arrange the class into small groups. Give each group identical samplings of fresh flowers. Tell the students to find pollen and nectar, taking the flower apart if necessary. Have each group notice where they found the pollen and the nectar, then share and compare their results in a discussion.
Art/Design: Show the students pictures of snowflakes. Point out that each is a hexagon. Teach them to fold and cut out simple snowflake patterns.
Language Arts: Find five or six poems or short stories about bees. Find several recipes that use honey in various ways such as using honey in the main meal, in desserts, for snacks, or even for medicine. Bring them to class to share.
Billy Bee Honey includes fun bee and honey-related games for kids including a Hexagon Hunt game, and recipes.
http://www.billybee.com
Sue Bee Honey includes honey facts, recipes, and even an electronic card to send to your "honey".
http://www.suebee.com/