Hart Bee Times
Hart Bee Times
About this website: Hart's fourth graders wanted to make the community aware of just how important bees and other pollinators are to our world. A website team comprising of 16 fourth graders was formed to create the content for the Hart Bee Times.
Hart Magnet School is a K-5 Science and Technology School in Stamford, Connecticut. Our curriculum fosters a hands-on, inquiry-based learning environment where young minds are encouraged to explore, question, and discover the wonders of science and technology. We nurture critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a lifelong love for learning through engaging projects and a dedicated team of educators. At Hart, we are committed to preparing our students to be the innovators and leaders of tomorrow, equipped with the knowledge and skills to thrive in an ever-evolving world.
Hart's STEAMquest initiative empowers students in grades K-5 to explore and solve a critical real-world problem, pollinator decline, through the lens of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). Students investigate the science behind pollinators, threats they face, and create solutions appropriate to their grade level.
Save the Bees!
By Genevie
Did you know that the population of bees is dropping by 40%-50%? Bees are going extinct, which is caused by global warming and the loss of flowers. Also people are killing bees, destroying their homes and nests. It is hard for bees to build a nest. We are the ones causing this and we have to find a way to fix this mess that us humans have caused. As a team, we can help bees from going extinct by planting flowers, letting bees live in peace, not taking their honey, and leaving nests alone. We can also take care of bees by watering flowers. Taking care of flowers helps bees, birds, ants, butterflies, and more . -Ladies and gentlemen, that's how you keep bees from going extinct.
See what Hart School is up to in STEAMquest!
Kindergarten wonders what a disaster is.
First Grade discusses what they see, hear, think, and wonder.
Second graders are curious. They want to know more about the mystery items.
We will work as scientists, engineers, and community leaders to find out why pollinators are disappearing and how we can make a change in our community.
We are not looking for correct answers, just really good questions!
What does the item in the bag reveal about the mystery?
All About Bees
By Charley and Ayema
Bees are interesting insects. They are pollinators. Bees dance to communicate. They are attracted to bright colors. In winter, female bees kick out male bees from the hive because they are useless. Male bees only have one job which is to mate with the queen bee.
If you wear colorful clothes, you might attract bees because they like colorful things. Don’t be scared to see bees in spring. Bees get killed by humans because people think they are just flying pests. Bees are more scared of you than you are of them. Bees only sting you if they feel you are bothering them. They don’t want to sting you because they die if they sting you. Bees are not harmful to you as long as you do not bother them.
People dislike bees because they sting you, but bees don’t like when you swat at them. They get really mad if you hit their hive. If you hit it with a rock they will charge at you. Bees are really protective of their queen.
Bees are important insects because they are pollinators. Without bees, the world would end because bees pollinate plants and we need plants to survive. Try not to pick flowers that bees are pollinating because they will feel threatened.
A Life of a Bee
By Majah and Brittany
Bees are fuzzy insects with over 20,000 species known. They collect nectar for honey. They live in diverse ways, from burrows to large honeybee colonies with queen workers, and workers and drones. They have fuzzy bodies, six legs, four wings and five eyes feeding on nectar and pollen.
Bees live in gardens, woodlands, orchards, and meadows where there are a lot of flowering plants. Honey bees build nests inside trees and under edges of objects to hide themselves from predators. Would you want to be a bee?
The life cycle of a bee has 4 stages. The first stage is an egg. Each egg is laid in one of the honeycomb cells, this is where they grow. They usually stay as an egg until about 3 days, then it moves onto the second stage.
The second stage of a bee is a larva, during this stage, the egg turns into a worm-like shape. This larva is fed with Royal Jelly which is made by the worker bees.
As the larva grows, the skin is replaced many times. This stage lasts 6 days in which it grows weight and size. At the end of this stage the larva makes a cocoon around itself and enters this new stage called the pupa. In the cocoon, the pupa has several changes. Depending on what it will turn into it will last about 12 days for worker bees, 14 days for drones, and 16 days if the bee will turn into a queen bee. During this stage it gets wings, antennas, eyes, legs, etc. Once finished it will eat itself out and appear as an adult bee.
The last stage is the adult. Depending on the role it will grow up and collect pollen, at the end if it is a queen bee it will lay eggs and repeat the same cycle.