Resources

Videos, Lessons, & Other Resources

These optional resources are provided in conjunction with AZ Ag Lit Days. They are made available as an educational supplement for volunteers and teachers who are able to invest more time beyond the basic reading of Bee's Amazing Adventure.

The lessons below are made available in their entirety. They will likely require modification to fit your time and needs. Smaller portions of a lesson are often used to focus on an activity.

Quick links: VIDEOS, LESSONS, RESOURCES

Videos

• The first 21 days of a bee’s life | Anand Varma (6:06)
  We’ve heard that bees are disappearing. But what is making bee colonies so vulnerable? Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his backyard — in front of a camera — to get an up close view. This project, for National Geographic, gives a lyrical glimpse into a bee hive — and reveals one of the biggest threats to its health, a mite that preys on baby bees in the first 21 days of life. With his incredible footage, set to music from Magik*Magik Orchestra, Varma shows the problem ... and what’s being done to solve it.

• Amazing Time-Lapse: Bees Hatch Before Your Eyes | National Geographic (1:08)
  Witness the eerily beautiful growth of larvae into bees in this mesmerizing time-lapse video from photographer Anand Varma. Varma said the six-month project, for which he built a beehive in his workshop, gave him a new respect for the meticulous job of beekeeping.

• The Waggle Dance of the Honeybee (7:28)
  How can honeybees communicate the locations of new food sources? Austrian biologist, Karl Von Frisch, devised an experiment to find out! By pairing the direction of the sun with the flow of gravity, honeybees are able to explain the distant locations of food by dancing. "The Waggle Dance of the Honeybee" details the design of Von Frisch's famous experiment and explains the precise grammar of the honeybees dance language with high quality visualizations. This video is a design documentary, developed by scientists at Georgia Tech's College of Computing in order to better understand and share with others, the complex behaviors that can arise in social insects. Their goal at the Multi-Agent Robotics and Systems (MARS) Laboratory is to harness new computer vision techniques to accelerate biologists' research in animal behavior. This behavioral research is then used, in turn, to design better systems of autonomous robots. For additional detail on the MARS lab at Georgia Tech, please visit http://www.bio-tracking.org/.

• Tales From The Hive (full screen w/ ads; small screen w/o ads) (53:52)
  NOVA chronicles a year in the life of a bee colony with stunning images that take viewers inside the innermost secrets of the hive. The documentary team spent a year developing special macro lenses and a bee studio to deliver the film's astonishing sequences. These include the "wedding flight" of the colony's virgin queen as it mates in mid-air with a drone; the life-and-death battle between two rival queens for the colony's throne; and the defeat and death of a thieving wasp at the entrance to the hive. The show also explores such mysteries as the famous "waggle dance" with which scout bees signal the exact direction and distance of nectar sources to the rest of the hive. A vivid picture emerges of the bee's highly organized social life, revolving around the disciplined sharing of construction tasks, the collection of nectar, and warding off enemies. "Tales From the Hive" pushes the boundaries of wildlife filmmaking and opens up an unforgettable window on a strange and complex insect world.

• Honeycomb under a Microscope! (The Life Cycle of a Honey Bee) (8:42)
  Having pulled this amazing wax frame out of our natural hive, I was really excited to take a closer look with my SPECIAL CAMERA and see what I could find! Using my microscope to explore the comb I discuss the life cycle of a honey bee and discover some surprise visitors along the way!

• City of Bees: A Children's Guide to Bees Video (1:32)
  Explore the secret, complex world of honeybees from a child's point of view. Six-year-old Oliver and his young friends join a beekeeper as he cares for his beehives over the course of a year. The children study everything from how a queen bee rules the hive, the various jobs each bee performs, how bees pollinate and how bees can fly at amazing speeds. Lesson Plan/Guidebook.

• What Is Honey? (1:38)
  Honey: You drink it in your tea and spread it on your bread, but what is honey, really?

• How It's Made Honey (4:46)
  Discovery / Science Channel's "How It's Made" Honey episode

• How Do Bees Make Honey? (6:33)
  The Honey Bee Dance Language Explained; Being a queen is about more than royal jelly; Multiple phenotypes coming from the same genetics; The social structure of honeybee hives.

• The Honey Files - A Bee's Life (16:22)
  A 16-min, children's educational video on how honey is made.

• That's So Sweet! - A look at honey production in the Twin Cities. (6:00)
  Follow along on the fascinating journey that honey travels from the hive to your home. Kristy Lynn Allen, head beekeeper at the Beez Kneez in Minneapolis, introduces the process of honey collection, extraction, and delivery. Learn the important role honey bees play in honey production and pollination of some of our favorite fruits and vegetables!

Lessons

Early Elementary

• Fabulous Flowers
  The purpose of this lesson is to review the functions of flowers and to help students understand that some flowers are edible.

• Animal or Plant?
  Students will learn about the sources of different foods by differentiating between foods originating from plants and foods originating from animals.

• Dig 'em Up
  In this lesson students will investigate the functions of roots, recognize the difference between a tap and fibrous root system, and identify the roots of some plants as edible.

• Eating Plants
  Students will identify the structure and function of six plant parts and classify fruits and vegetables according to which parts of the plants are edible.

• How Does Your Garden Grow
  Students will understand the needs of a seed to germinate and the needs of a plant to grow while exploring the life stages of a flowering plant.

• Buzzing Bee's Wardrobe
  Explore the physical characteristic functions of honeybees through whole class instruction. Individual students will create an egg carton bee craft.

• Do the Honeybee Dance!
  Students learn two popular dances honeybees perform to communicate with other honeybees.

• How Busy are Bees?
  Use a timeline activity to illustrate the different duties typical worker bees perform throughout their lives.

• Those Busy, Buzz'n Worker Bees
  Students pretend to be bees smelling flowers and sensing the sun while learning how bees work hard to produce honey and wax.

• To Bee or Not to Bee
  Students will do a variety of activities to show the importance of bees in the food chain, and the importance bees play in pollination. In the process they will learn how honey is made.

• Eggs: From Hen to Home
  In this lesson students will learn about the production of eggs beginning on the farm and ending in their home. Students will also identify the culinary uses and nutritional benefits of eggs.

• Freshest Fruits
  Students will learn about where fruits grow and their nutritional value by completing an activity to observe the size, shape, texture, and seeds of various fruits.

• It's a MOO-stery
  Students will be introduced to the dairy industry and will make observations about how historic tools such as a butter paddle, cheese press, and milk tester can be used to process milk on a dairy farm.

• Milk or Meat? Beef or Dairy?
  Students will identify the differences between beef and dairy cattle and determine the commodities produced by each type of cattle.

• Where Did Your Hamburger Come From?
  Students learn about the variety of agricultural products they consume in a hamburger and will trace the ingredients back to their source. This lesson contains information specifically for California students.

• My Farm Web
  Students use the visual representation of a web to explore the role of agriculture in their daily lives and understand how most of the necessities of life can be traced back to the farm.

Mid-Upper Elementary

• Flower Power
  Students will observe physical characteristics of flowers and explore principles of pollination.

• Getting to the Root of the Matter
  Students will compare tap and fibrous roots; grow four types of plants, observe roots, & write observations; and identify which types of roots prevent soil erosion better.

• How Do Plants Make Food
  Students will explain the process of photosynthesis using the correct vocabulary; conduct an experiment limiting sunlight to a plant leaf; and make observations & come to a conclusion about sunlight and a plant’s ability to make food.

• Plant Seedling
  Students will label the basic parts of a seed; record, through observation, data obtained from “plantings;” and complete flipbooks.

• Magic Beans and Giant Plants
  Students will plant seeds and make considerations on which conditions affect plant growth. They will design and conduct experiments using a problem-solving process and compare and contrast to understand the parameters which influence the health and growth of living things.

• A "Sour" Subject
  Students will learn about the growth and production of citrus fruits and participate in an activity where they use skills of observation and mathematical computation to compare and contrast grapefruits and lemons.

• In a Nutshell
  Students will explore pecan production from farm to fork, simulate the process of grafting, and create a nutritious snack.

• King Cotton
  Students will learn about the production and processing of cotton and discuss the impact it has had on the history and culture of the United States.

• Water Supply
  Students will observe and understand that water changes states as it moves through the water cycle.

• Honey Bees: A Pollination Simulation
  Students will identify the parts of a honey bee, the stages of its life cycle, and its role in pollination.

• At Home on the Range
  Students will learn about rangelands by participating in a hands-on activity of growing their own grass to represent a beef or sheep ranch.

• Caring for the Land
  Students will explain why people have different opinions regarding soil management and identify cause and effect relationships relating to agriculture and the environment.

• Beef Basics
  Students will explain the importance of the beef cattle industry, including the products cattle produce, the production process from farm to plate, and how cattle can utilize and obtain energy from grass and other forage.

• Build-a-Calf Workshop
  Students will explore concepts of heredity in beef cattle and identify dominant and recessive traits.

• A Day without Dairy
  Students will create, read, and interpret graphs relating to the economic importance of the dairy industry and be challenged to understand the economic consequences of a day without dairy.

• Milk Makin' Math
  Students will learn about the numerous career opportunities involved in the dairy industry. They will also practice real world math problems related to specific careers within the industry.

• Sun, to Moo, to You!
  Students will investigate the transfer of energy in the process of making milk. Students will understand that there are different forms of energy, that living things need energy to survive and that the primary source of energy is the sun.

Resources

• Bee Buzz Game
  Players take turns throwing a die and drawing a bee on a piece of paper. The winner is the one who first completes the drawing of the bee.

• Color and Label Pee Wee Bee (answers)
  Children join Pee Wee Bee as she flits from field to field sharing fascinating facts about Arizona agriculture in Bee's Amazing Adventure. Now students can learn more as they color Pee Wee and label her different body parts.

• National Honey Board
  Education materials made for kids grade 2-4, these handy activity sheets are designed to teach your kids about bees, honey, and just how important they are to the world. Covering everything from beehives, pollination, how honey is made and even bee sustainability, each sheet features a fun activity kids can do at home or in school.

• PBS NOVA Online
  Website providing pictures and information about the anatmoy of a beehive.

• The A-MAZING-Egg
  Navigate through a maze as an egg journeys from hen to home.

• Bean Seed Diagram
  This diagram shows the cross section of a bean seed.

• Seed to Seed Cycle
  This illustration shows the cycle of a sunflower seed.

• Plant Part Diagram
  This diagram by Campus Kitchens can be used to both color and label the parts of a plant.

• Farm Web Diagram
  This diagram uses pictures to illustrate commodities grown at a farm and their connection to products for consumers.

• Standards Practice Quiz - optional quizzes specificall designed to test reading comprehension of Bee's Amazing Adventure
  3^rd Grade questions & answers
  4^th Grade questions & answers
  5^th Grade questions & answers