Bees
Bees are the world’s most important pollinators of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees.  If our bee populations were to diminish it would significantly impact our ability to feed the world's people. You can find out more about the importance of bees by exploring the resources found on this page.
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 KEYWORDS  
bee; pollen; pollinate; hive; worker bee; drone; queen bee; honeycomb; wax; royal jelly; colony; swarm; sting; colony collapse; bumblebee, apiarist, bee hotel; varroa mite; sacbrood disease; fouldbrood disease; biosecurity​; native bees; food security.​
FOCUS QUESTIONS
  1. How many species of bee are there around the world? In Australia?
  2. Why are bees so important?
  3. What role do bees play in agriculture?
  4. What are some of the products that are created from various bee activities?
  5. What habitats do bees live in (natural and man-made)?​
  6. How many bees can be found in a hive?
  7. ​What different roles do bees have in a hive?
  8. How long do bees live?
  9. What are bees main predators (enemies)?
  10. How do bees pollinate flowers?
  11. How can we encourage more bees to come into our gardens?
  12. How do you make a bee hotel?
  13. Why are bee colonies dying out?
  14. What are the main causes of bee death?
  15. What is varroa mite? Why is it so dangerous?
  16. What will happen if bee populations continue to die out?
All of the images on this page have come form the website PXHERE and they are all copyright free.

10 activities to show your knowledge about bees

 1)   Create an infographic that shows all the different products made by bees.
2)  Create a mini documentary that introduces bees and emphasises their importance. Use free images and videos available from the image library.
3) Use Scratch, Scratch junior or another animation tool to create an animation about the importance of bees.
​4) Use a mind mapping tool to create an interactive mind map that has embedded images, video and web links all about bees.
5) Create a VOKI animation (like the one above) that gives important information that you found out about bees.
6) Write a poem or create a picture book that shows the importance of bees.
7) Create a word cloud of words / vocabulary around bees. HINT: you can start with the words listed above in the KEYWORDS section. What other words can you find?
​8)  Stamps: create a commemorative bee stamp. Think about which bee you would choose to draw and why.
9)   Newscasts: create a news cast that talks about the importance of bees and what will happen if bee populations continue to decline.
10)  Design a bee hotel for your back yard. Detail why you chose materials, design and location for your bee hotel.