Build a Bee Hotel

Grades3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Biology

Provided by Roots and Shoots

What it is

This video teaches students how to construct a bee hotel for Mason Bees, presented by a Roots & Shoots student leader.
Students will learn the steps they need to take, the materials they will need, and how bee hotels can positively impact the environment.

Positives

Students will enjoy learning from a high school student, who explains and demonstrates how to do the project.
The activity is easy to complete and will provide students with a tangible product they can use to help Mason Bees.

Additional Prerequisites

To construct a bee hotel, students will need a container (e.g., box, jar, can, mug), tube-shaped objects (e.g., bamboo shoots, rolled magazine pages, wide straws), and twine or string.
Teachers may want to provide students with art supplies to decorate their bee hotels.
For printable directions, click the link below the video.

Differentiation

Math classes could calculate the area and volume of their bee motels.
Social studies classes could use this project in a unit about supporting the local community.
Elementary language arts classes could watch this animated video of a wordless book on bees and then complete this project as a follow-up activity.
This activity would be an excellent station during a station rotation. Students could work on other bee-related work, read nonfiction texts on bees, and complete other activities at the other stations.
This activity could be used as a culminating project after studying bees.
Other related resources include this video about the importance of biodiversity, this activity that focuses on building a pollinator garden, and this article about plants and animals that are especially confused by climate change.

This resource demonstrates practical steps for how to build a bee hotel using household items. This is recommended for teaching.

Hosted on rootsandshoots.org

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Standards alignment · D4.7.3-5 + 4 more

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards

D4.7.3-5Explain different strategies and approaches students and others could take in working alone and together to address local, regional, and global problems, and predict possible results of their actions.
D4.8.3-5Use a range of deliberative and democratic procedures to make decisions about and act on civic problems in their classrooms and schools.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

MS-LS2-2.Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-ESS3-3.Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
5-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.