Minneapolis Elementary Students Buzzing Over School's Beehives
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Some students in Minneapolis are getting an up close lesson all about bees.
Loring Community Elementary School is the first in Minneapolis to have beehives on site.
A short review for this eager group of third graders before getting up close and personal.
"What do bees eat again?" Erin Rupp said. "Oh they make honey from flowers and they gather pollen."
Erin Rupp, founder of Pollinate Minnesota, provided the hives, bees and and all the resources for the program.
"How many types of honey bees in a hive?" Rupp asked the students.
"The drones we might not see so many of today, if we're so lucky we'll see the queen, we'll definitely see a lot of workers. We'll also see some life cycle stages."
And finally the kiddos get to suit up. Rupp shows them the queen on one of the hives.
Nothing like a queen to get kids excited about bees.
"It's like a treasure hunt," a student said, identifying the queen by the bald spot on the middle part of its head.
"What I like is the experience of holding it, and looking directly at it and getting close to it," a student said.
The lessons on these bees focus on pollinators and their importance to the environment, plant life cycles as well as the food we eat.
"Bees are having a hard time and so to help bees we can plant more flowers and keep those spaces free of insecticides," Rupp said.
And if the bees make enough honey this year, the school will eventually provide it in their cafeteria.