INTRODUCTION: Busy, Busy Bees!
The hum of bees is the voice of the garden – Elizabeth Lawrence (American horticulture writer and landscape architect)
Bees and flowers have a symbiotic relationship that has evolved together for millions of years. The bee gathers pollen and nectar from some plants to consume as food and in this process it helps spread pollen and nectar from plant to plant allowing for a process called pollination. Through this relationship bees pollinate about one third of the plants that we use for food. The bee is a very important part of our ecosystem.
In this lesson you will learn more about the bee, how it flies, how it sees, and how it uses its different senses to choose flowers for collecting and spreading pollen, as well as a bit about the different varieties of bees and their diverse habitats.
WATCH THIS!
Bees face many different challenges as they struggle to survive. They have to navigate to find food and shelter in a rapidly changing world.
Let’s start with how the bee travels from one flower to another. What can you learn about how a bee flies?
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Narrator: in 1934 French entomologist calculated
that wings as small as a bees couldn't
produce enough lift to allow it to be
airborne and this started a rumor that
the flight of a bee defies the laws of
physics but of course that just isn't
true if you presume that a bee's wings
are stable like an aircraft then yes
they're too small to work but a bee's
wings are flexible move in both
directions and flap up to 230 times a
second the combination of choppy wing
strokes are rapid rotation of the wing
and a very fast wing beat frequency is
the secret of Abby's flight this
particular method allows the bee to
generate more lift than other insects
its size and that's perfect for carrying
loads of pollen sometimes as big as
themselves back to the hive.
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Being a bee can be a real challenge these days.
By getting to know the bees around you better, you’ll understand more about how bees survive, and what we can do to help them.
Have you seen a bee recently? Where was it, in a city, in your backyard, garden or other natural habitat? How did it fly and did you notice it pollinating a flower?
