by editor | Oct 24, 2013 | K-12 Classroom Resources
Honeybee Heroes: Carter Latendresse at Catlin Gabel School
by Katie Boehnlein
arter Latendresse is the sixth grade English teacher at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, OR. In addition to his classroom courses, which focus on fostering social responsibility in his students through ancient and contemporary literature, Carter is also the Garden Coordinator at the school. The Catlin Gabel Garden Club tends 2,000 square feet of organic gardens on its 60-acre campus, a 50-tree fruit orchard, and as you have probably guessed, honeybee hives. Catlin Gabel has earned itself a reputation in the Portland Metro area as a progressive institution that encourages all of its students, aged Pre-K to 12th grade, to think deeply and learn through experience. Carter embraces this philosophy, harvesting from and working in the school’s gardens as part of his English curriculum.
Catlin Gabel also has a history of hosting honeybee hives on its campus, as a few teachers in the 1970s kept their hives on the school’s lush grounds, but the school hasn’t had a working hive run by staff and students in quite some time. Troubled by issues such as global agribusiness, monocropping, processed food, global warming, and desertification, Carter was motivated to install a beehive in the school’s orchard, which is located on the periphery of campus, away from the normal walking paths. He hoped that by having this hive on the campus, students could learn more about local food sources, biodiversity, and organic gardening first-hand. After receiving permission from both the facilities and grounds departments, who were immediate supporters, he recruited four fellow colleagues to take a beekeeping class in Hillsboro and a few weeks later, they set up the hive.
Since then, the beekeeping activities on campus have received a very positive reception. All four school divisions have been involved in visiting the hive, from quiet Kindergardeners to boisterous fifth graders to sixth graders learning hands-on beekeeping skills with Carter. For most of these visits, Carter has set up an observational tent with four mesh walls. This allows an entire classroom to watch the goings-on in the hive without danger of being stung. Many teachers have also been involved in tending the hive, from elementary teachers to the middle school Chinese teacher to the school-wide food services director to the head of the grounds crew to high school science teachers. Many people on campus have seen the beehive as an opportunity to learn more about a very pressing topic and involve their students directly in a solution.
The apiary project at Catlin Gabel School is only continuing to grow, aided by little opposition to the project and a great interest from students and staff on campus. According to Carter, “Once people hear that we know who is allergic to bee stings and that we have plans, fear melts away.” He would like to increase the school’s apiary to three hives next spring, following a strategy of organic beekeeping that allows one hive to be actively producing honey, one on the rise, and allows one to dwindle. Carter has been able to tie the hive into his classroom lessons on seeds, flowers, pollination, and organic local school garden food. In conjunction with these lessons, his classes are able to go out into the observational tent as well as try out their beekeeping skills wearing a veil and gloves. Of his students, Carter says, “They love the bees—it’s both an exciting and relaxing experience, especially for those with their hands on the hive.” Twice every seven days, Carter offers a Gardening and Beekeeping activity block in the middle school, which will allow ten students to be actively involved in the gardens and with the beehive.
Carter was recently selected by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) to be part of the 2013-2014 Teachers of the Future program. He is one of 25 teachers nation-wide who “inspire academic excellence in students and serve as opinion leaders among their colleagues and peers,” hallmarks of high quality education for the 21st century. As part of this honor, Carter is creating a video about the beekeeping program at Catlin Gabel School, to share beekeeping tips with colleagues nationwide who are interested in keeping bees on campus. He is being aided by Portland beekeeper Brian Lacy, another one of our Honeybee Heroes, as well as his other fellow Catlin Gabel beekeepers. He is hoping that this video will educate fellow NAIS teachers about the importance of beekeeping and empower them to start their own apiaries. The video, which you can watch here, serves to feature the interdisciplinary learning program at Catlin Gabel School as well as guide teachers through a step-by-step process of starting an apiary on their campuses. Carter is an inspiring teacher who is truly helping his students better connect with the world around them. He encourages them to find solutions to their own problems, large and small, through both studying literature and by getting their hands dirty in a garden. Speaking to the Oregonian newspaper about his role as a teacher, he says, “What can we do as teachers is impart lessons to kids that allow them to have hope but while also confronting these huge problems. For every problem, we try to present a solution and we try to allow them to do it.”
Katie Boehnlein is a writer/intern for CLEARING magazine and teaching assistant at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys writing about the endless expressions of place-based education, inspired by so many creative teachers. Katie blogs about her own ecological and urban adventures at “In the Midst,” which can be found at kboehnlein.wordpress.com.
by editor | Oct 15, 2013 | K-12 Classroom Resources
Sarah Red-Laird lives and breathes honeybees.
by Katie Boehnlein
arah Red-Laird, or “Bee Girl” is an Ashland, OR native who says that she has been fascinated with honeybees since her early childhood. On the playground in elementary school, she would pick up bees and pet them to impress other kids. Her aunt’s partner, a beekeeper, was also a major influence on Sarah, giving her honeycomb to taste during harvest season.
“There’s nothing like eating fresh honeycomb as a toddler to sell you on bees for life!” Sarah recalls.
Many years later, the Davidson Honors Program at University of Montana gave Sarah the opportunity to fully investigate her childhood fascination. Allowed to write on any topic of her choice for her senior thesis, she chose beekeeping and Colony Collapse Disorder. Over the course of this project, she learned beekeeping skills in the field and researched in the university’s lab. She caught on quickly and after she had finished the project, she was able to present her findings at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research to a standing room only audience and was promptly offered a research position with University of Montana.
Sarah showing some of her young students a frame filled with bees. Their curiosity and wonder is evident!
When Sarah landed back in Ashland on what she thought would be a short hiatus, her skills as a beekeeper were immediately sought after. She was asked to help community members set up hives and speak in classrooms as well as to the larger community. Hence, “Bee Girl” was born. Today, Sarah’s work with apiary-based education spans not only many cities and counties in Oregon, but world-wide as well. Her nonprofit, which she also calls “Bee Girl,” (http://www.beegirl.org/) still works locally, presenting at individual classrooms and to the broader public, and she has honed an presentation engaging all five senses. She engrosses her audience in the “world of the honeybee” by bringing honey to taste, honeycomb to feel, and in the height of bee season, a live observation hive to see and hear. She also brings costumes along for kids to dress up as bees- antennae, crowns, tutus, wings, stingers, and all. Sarah has traveled to through Oregon and to the East Coast twice with her presentation, will be in Louisiana and Kentucky in 2014, and even hopes to travel to Kenya soon to speak there. Sarah’s reputation spans to far reaches, as she heads up the Kids and Bees Program for the American Beekeeping Federation (http://www.abfnet.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=16) and hopes to hold a position as US Ambassador for the International Bee Research Association.
Oregon is lucky to have Sarah as their local “Bee Girl” and she has proven herself as quite the mentor in Ashland. Ryan King, another one of our “Honeybee Heroes,” sought out Sarah when he began the Ashland Apiary project as part of his graduate studies. When he realized that he had a “walking beecyclopedia” in town, they began their fantastic partnership of engaging the Ashland community, especially students, in the art of beekeeping. For more information about the beginnings of the Ashland Apiary Project, you can read Ryan’s “Honeybee Heroes” profile (https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/8599). Since Ryan has recently graduated from Southern Oregon University, Sarah now acts as co-director of the SOU Beekeeping Club, “teaching students not only how to keep bees but how to become advocates for bees and sustainable farming.” She leads meetings once per week on campus and coordinates field learning and working field trips to local bee-related sites. In the future, Sarah hopes to teach beekeeping courses in the spring and fall through the SOU Sustainability Center (http://www.sou.edu/sustainable/center-for-sustainability/index.html).
Some of Sarah’s students all dressed up and rockin out as bees as part of the Buzz About Bees summer camp at ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum in Ashland.
It is evident that Sarah Red-Laird lives and breathes the world of the honeybee. Her passion for educating students of all ages about such an inspiring species is evident and tangible. A student in one of her beekeeping classes puts it this way: “Thank you so much for leading us to care for our bees. You are a wonderful teacher, and your love for the bees shines through everything you do.” As is the case with many educators who love honeybees, one of Sarah’s main goals in her work is to dispel fear surrounding bees. She sees her youngest students as the key to reversing this social fear. “That is why I do what I do,” she says, “to inspire a sense of fascination, wonder, and love at a young age, that I hope turns to understanding or even advocacy as these kids grow into our leaders of tomorrow.” She also sees the need for our society to educate a generation of citizens that understand the complexity of our modern food system and question its flaws. When asked why pollinator education is so important, she answered, “If you can capture the heart and imagination of a child, and release the sweetness and light of the honeybee in them- they will never forget it. By saving the bee, they will save our world.” Bee-autiful. Thank you, Sarah, for being an inspiring leader in the field of pollinator education!
You can learn more about Sarah and her passion for beekeeping in this installment of “Immense Possibilities,” featuring Sarah (http://www.immensepossibilities.org/ipr-podcasts/bee-keeping/).
Katie Boehnlein is a writer/intern for CLEARING magazine and teaching assistant at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys writing about the endless expressions of place-based education, inspired by so many creative teachers. Katie blogs about her own ecological and urban adventures at “In the Midst,” which can be found at kboehnlein.wordpress.com.
by editor | Oct 7, 2013 | K-12 Classroom Resources
Students at Southern Oregon University installing a beehive at their on-campus garden.
An Alternative to Traditional Education
Honeybee Heroes: Ryan King at Southern Oregon University
by Katie Boehnlein
outhern Oregon University in Ashland, OR is a “sweet” place to be. Ryan King, a recent graduate of Southern Oregon’s Master’s of Science in Environmental Education program, has just finished his thesis on apiary-based education, or the practice of utilizing beehives in educational settings. Ryan is a pioneer in the promotion and pedagogy of this field, having been a beekeeper in various schools for the past four years after his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College.
Ryan first got “stung” while he was working at Al Kennedy Alternative High School in Cottage Grove, OR, a school that CLEARING featured in 2010 for its focus on place-based, experiential education. (https://clearingmagazine.org/archives/2368) Ryan’s principal at Kennedy asked him to spearhead a beekeeping project, since he had majored in science during his undergraduate studies and was interested in working with his students outdoors. After just a few months of working with students at the beehive, Ryan began to see the impact that the practice of beekeeping could have on a school community. He saw class attendance rates and student buy-in rise at the school, impacts that he attributed to the opportunity for at-risk students to invest time in hands-on projects. Ryan saw beekeeping as a way to connect students to the science they were learning in the classroom while at the same time giving them valuable skills they could use in the future. He sees his students as future scientists and farmers of America, and what a better way to connect students to current events than by giving them valuable skills to contribute to world problems?
Ryan King instructs young students about honeybees during a summer class for elementary-aged children at Southern Oregon University.
Consequently, Ryan focused his graduate studies on apiary-based education. Over the two years he spent in Ashland, he established a hands-on, multi-age, multi-pronged beekeeping program called the Ashland Apiary Project. In his recent article “Beekeeping as Experiential: The Ashland Apiary Project,” Ryan lays out the educational and environmental goals that emerge from apiary-based education and the outcomes that he has seen manifest from Ashland’s project specifically. (http://www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/content/beekeeping-as-experiential-the-ashland-apiary-project_2013_05/)
The project starts with training college-aged students from Southern Oregon University, centrally located at the three-hive apiary in the school’s campus garden. These students are mentored in beekeeping skills by local beekeeper Sarah Red-Laird, who runs an educational nonprofit organization in the area called BeeGirl. (http://www.beegirl.org/) Students then take their new skills into the community, teaching high school students through the SOU Beekeeping Club and advocating for pollinator gardens and other sustainable projects at city council meetings. From there, the project reaches elementary school students through summer science camps and educational workshops. This year, Ryan sets out to establish an on-campus apiary in his new teaching position at Ruch Elementary School, a rural K-8 public school in the Applegate Valley. The apiary will serve as a satellite research site to Southern Oregon University as well as award opportunities for students to host symposia at Ruch and collaborate with local beekeepers and farmers in the community. Through these many outcomes, Ryan shows us the many benefits that can come from a school apiary project.
The Ashland Apiary Project thrives in Southern Oregon University’s campus garden.
Ryan sees apiary-based education as a complement to the already-existing pedagogical philosophy of place-based education. The “stuffy indoor curriculum” that he observes in schools today is not what kids need. “Kids are bored, kids are penned into curriculum, and they get spit out very unmotivated about where they’ve come from,” he says.
His solution, beekeeping, gives students a local, community perspective to their education and valuable skills for their future. Ryan reminds us that learning from bees, by nature, is localizing, as bees depend on the four miles surrounding their hive for food. Therefore, hands-on projects on campus, like a school beehive, can flatten the school’s walls while at the same time connect students to their local community. Ryan’s colleague, Sarah Red-Laird (BeeGirl) has taken on the lead responsibilities for the Ashland Apiary Project, whose future plans include an expansion to a sustainability and farm center that Southern Oregon University is developing. Here, Sarah would teach college-level classes on beekeeping and develop a full-course program at the university. Stay tuned next, as we visit with her next week!
Katie Boehnlein is a writer/intern for CLEARING magazine and teaching assistant at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys writing about the endless expressions of place-based education, inspired by so many creative teachers. Katie blogs about her own ecological and urban adventures at “In the Midst,” which can be found at kboehnlein.wordpress.com.
by editor | Sep 26, 2013 | K-12 Classroom Resources
Students at Mt. Vernon High school inspecting their school’s rooftop beehive
by Katie Boehlein
ric Engman is a physics teacher at Mt. Vernon High School, where he has also taken on the role of “campus beekeeper.” The process of starting a school beehive began some years ago, when Eric began installing a rotational series of mostly physics-related displays in his hallway. This was a project that was first started to “inspire curiosity” for his students, and when the science department discussed adding a biology display, adding a beehive was suggested. Over the next year, Eric took the lead on getting approval for a hive from his principal, the school board, and the district (all positive responses); making the project public with parents in the community; learning about beekeeping himself through the local bee club; purchasing enough beekeeping equipment for himself and five students; and constructing a list of students interested in doing hands-on learning with bees.
Eric Engman has installed an observational beehive in the science hallway of Mt. Vernon High School.
Today, all students at Mt. Vernon High School have the opportunity to be exposed to the natural world just by walking down their science hallway. The school’s observational beehive, which holds ten frames, is displayed vertically in the wall. Students can spend their lunch hour watching the bees’ activity from a bench near the hive, as well as listening to the colony’s buzz through a microphone installed inside the hive. Eric has also displayed seven or eight educational posters on the same wall which teach students about the biology of bees and inform them of the latest goings-on in the hive. Next to the observational hive is a wall of windows, where students and faculty can look out on the school’s second rooftop hive, located fifteen feet away. Students also have opportunities to work hands-on with the hive. Eric takes five students out to the rooftop balcony once per week, pulling from a pool of 50-60 currently interested students who have received written permission from their parents to be involved in the project. The students put on full jump suits and follow Eric out to the balcony to assist him in doing weekly hive inspections.
A set of locked doors at Mt. Vernon High School leads out from the science wing to the rooftop “MVHS Honeybee Project.”
The impact that these beehives have had on the Mt. Vernon High School community has been extremely positive. As a result of the observational hive, students have a place to convene and learn at the same time. “It’s a neat place,” Eric says. “They can see everything that’s going on without any contact with the bees at all.” Students regularly spend class breaks in front of the hive, checking in on its latest action and holding competitions on who can spot the queen first. Eric says that the beehives on their campus have inspired curiosity in all members of the school community, not just science students. Students, teachers, and parents regularly send him current articles about bees and stop him in the hallway to discuss the impacts of Colony Collapse Disorder. Not only has Eric become a practicing beekeeper, but four other staff members and one student have since taken beekeeping courses and started their own hives at home. The biggest question Eric hears on his bee-enlightened campus is, “Why are bees dying?” The concern and interest about these tiny creatures has been electric at Mt. Vernon; Eric has truly created an inspiring place of curiosity and active learning.
Katie Boehnlein is a writer/intern for CLEARING magazine and teaching assistant at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys writing about the endless expressions of place-based education, inspired by so many creative teachers. Katie blogs about her own ecological and urban adventures at “In the Midst,” which can be found at kboehnlein.wordpress.com.
Additional bee teaching resources:
http://www.oakland.edu/upload/docs/MiTSHAPE/Curricula/Swartz/Swartzbeeunit.pdf
http://westvistaurbanfarmschool.blogspot.com/2009/02/kids-can-keep-bees-too.html
by editor | Sep 20, 2013 | K-12 Classroom Resources
by Katie Boehnlein
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n recent years, there has been an audible buzz, on both the community level and in the media, about the future of pollinators. In 2009, CLEARING asked you “Why Care About Pollinators?” and the issue is still hot today. The future of the honeybee is especially worrisome, due to their direct impact on America’s commercial food system (not to mention the sweet honey that they make). Over the last ten years, beekeepers across the country have been using the term “Colony Collapse Disorder” because of a noticeable decline in their healthy hives. Recent studies on pesticides in agriculture, as well as reports of significantly reduced pollinator habitat and increased pests, have left beekeepers and bee lovers alike horrified.
The Pacific Northwest has been especially featured in these news reports, as mass bumblebee deaths in the Portland, OR suburbs of Wilsonville and Hillsboro received national exposure. Both of these instances were due to ill-timed application of pesticides to ornamental trees growing in commercial parking lots. Dewey Caron is a retired entomologist but actively keeps bees and teaches at Oregon State University’s horticultural department. In his recent Hillsboro Tribune article, “Who will speak for dead bees?”, Caron speaks about these tragic events near his home. He especially speaks to the need for citizens to “educate ourselves about pollination’s role in our lives and what consequences pesticides might play in normal functioning ecosystems.” The health of pollinators, honeybees among them, is clearly at great risk. And as Caron says, it is also clear that education must step into its role of not only enlightening our country’s decision makers and agricultural stakeholders about the necessity of pollination but our next generation as well.
Honeybee Heroes
Luckily, educators in the Western region have rallied around issues facing pollinators. From
Washington to Oregon to Montana, teachers and administrators have recognized the importance of connecting their students to pollination through their studies of insects and food systems. Some have even gone a step further, installing beehives on their campuses and exposing students to an incredible ecosystem buzzing with tens of thousands of honeybees. CLEARING has sought out these “Honeybee Heroes,” educators who are exposing students of all ages to the wonders of honeybees. Stay tuned for our five-part series, where you will learn and be inspired by the stories of Eric, Ryan, Sarah, Carter, and Brian, all speaking to the impact they have seen in using beehives, or apiaries, as hands-on educational sites and their experiences in establishing successful educational models in schools.
Mt Vernon, Washington
First you will hear from Eric Engman, a high school physics teacher in Mt. Vernon, WA who has made it possible for students to really “see” the inner workings of a beehive.
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Southern Oregon University
Our second installment will be about Ryan King, a recent graduate of Southern Oregon University, where he has established a successful apiary project at the university and beyond.
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Ashland
Third is Sarah Red-Laird, also known as “Bee Girl,” an Ashland, OR native who has returned to her hometown to foster a “sweet” relationship between people and honeybees.
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Portland
Next is Carter Latendresse, a sixth grade English teacher at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, OR who kickstarted a successful apiary project on his campus in harmony with the school’s garden and orchard. Coming October 21.
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Finally, Brian Lacy is a beekeeper in Portland, OR and founder of LiveHoneyBees.com, an educator who has proven himself as an invaluable mentor for Portland-area beekeepers young and old. Coming October 28.
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Katie Boehnlein is a writer/intern for CLEARING magazine. She is currently student teaching at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon, and she writes a nature blog at http://kboehnlein.wordpress.com/.
Pollinator Education Resources
by Katie Boehnlein
Are you buzzing to get your hands on a hive tool? These resources below will get you started on connecting your students to the wonders of pollinators. If you’re looking to start a beehive on campus, start by contacting your local bee club to see when they offer beginning beekeeping classes.
Educators at a pollinator education workshop in Kalispell, MT put on by the Montana Pollinator Education Project.
Montana Pollinator Education Project (MPEP)
Visit the Montana Department of Agriculture (http://agr.mt.gov/agr/Programs/AgClassroom/LessonPlans/SchoolProjects/K-8montanapollinator/ ) website for full lesson plans, posters, seed packets, and parent outreach materials about pollinators for educators to use free of charge! For educators in Montana, the MPEP puts on workshops on how to integrate pollinator education into their existing science, language arts, and arts curriculums. The response to this project has been overwhelmingly positive, as the MPEP have been sending kits to teachers all across America; they have even had requests from overseas! All lesson plans are aligned with the Common Core standards, so teachers can easily fit the writing assignments into their existing curriculum.
USFWS Biologist Jeff Chan shows a honeycomb to students at GruB in Olympia, WA. Photo credit: Teal Waterstrat (USFWS)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Pollinator Education Program
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers extensive educational information about pollinators on their website, from activity guides to PowerPoint presentations to a guide for creating schoolyard habitats. (http://www.fws.gov/pollinators/ ) The Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington State has also fostered a rich relationship with an alternative high school farming nonprofit called Garden Raised Urban Bounty (GRuB) in Olympia, WA. Fish and Wildlife biologist, Jeff Chan, has given classes and placed hives at their farmhouse, which has culminated in twenty of the students tending one of the hives themselves. The farm school will be integrating beekeeping into their school’s curriculum in the years ahead. Read more about this partnership on the blog for Fish and Wildlife Service members in Washington State. (http://wordfromwild.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-sweet-it-is-fws-teaches-students.html )
The Pollinator Partnership
The Pollinator Partnership is a nonprofit organization that aims at protecting the health of managed and native pollinating animals living in North America. They offer a comprehensive pollinator education program for grades 3-6 called “Nature’s Partners,” along with many other resources available for free on their website! (http://pollinator.org/beesmart_teachers.htm )
The Xerces Society
The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. For over forty years, the Society has been at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs. They feature some great resources for educators on their website, spanning information about school gardens to native bees to pollinator identification sheets (http://www.xerces.org/educational-resources/ ). The Xerces Society also provides information on citizen monitoring, a wonderful, real-world science activity to do with students. One idea would be to follow the “Great Sunflower Project” curriculum, which involves planting sunflowers and observing pollinators that visit them. (http://www.greatsunflower.org/)
Immense Possibilities
Last year, Southern Oregon Public Television aired an inspiring 30-minute video called “Bees: nurturing the tiny connectors of sustainability,” featuring our “Honeybee Heroes” Sarah (BeeGirl) and Ryan King. (http://www.immensepossibilities.org/ipr-podcasts/bee-keeping ) “How can we help the bees survive?” they ask. It’s up to us to answer.
College Beekeeper
This website, managed by Michael Smith of Cornell University, is aimed at college students who want to start a student beekeeping program. An incredible resource with step-by-step advice, College Beekeeper could be adapted for an elementary or middle school context as well. It also calls for action: “With pollinators declining, and beekeepers aging, it’s essential to get younger people involved in beekeeping.” (https://sites.google.com/site/collegebeekeeper/)
Photo credit: Studio Matthews
Seattle’s Pollinator Pathway
For Seattle-area teachers, the Pollinator Pathway project aims at creating continuous habitat where pollinators can thrive. The current pathway “draws a line of plant life” for one mile along Columbia Street in Seattle and is an inspiring artistic and scientific model for creating pollinator habitat within a city. This would be a neat idea for teachers looking to connect their pollinator education to art and mapping studies! For more information, visit the Pollinator Pathway website. (http://www.pollinatorpathway.com/ )
by Katie Boehnlein
Catlin Gabel also has a history of hosting honeybee hives on its campus, as a few teachers in the 1970s kept their hives on the school’s lush grounds, but the school hasn’t had a working hive run by staff and students in quite some time. Troubled by issues such as global agribusiness, monocropping, processed food, global warming, and desertification, Carter was motivated to install a beehive in the school’s orchard, which is located on the periphery of campus, away from the normal walking paths. He hoped that by having this hive on the campus, students could learn more about local food sources, biodiversity, and organic gardening first-hand. After receiving permission from both the facilities and grounds departments, who were immediate supporters, he recruited four fellow colleagues to take a beekeeping class in Hillsboro and a few weeks later, they set up the hive.
The apiary project at Catlin Gabel School is only continuing to grow, aided by little opposition to the project and a great interest from students and staff on campus. According to Carter, “Once people hear that we know who is allergic to bee stings and that we have plans, fear melts away.” He would like to increase the school’s apiary to three hives next spring, following a strategy of organic beekeeping that allows one hive to be actively producing honey, one on the rise, and allows one to dwindle. Carter has been able to tie the hive into his classroom lessons on seeds, flowers, pollination, and organic local school garden food. In conjunction with these lessons, his classes are able to go out into the observational tent as well as try out their beekeeping skills wearing a veil and gloves. Of his students, Carter says, “They love the bees—it’s both an exciting and relaxing experience, especially for those with their hands on the hive.” Twice every seven days, Carter offers a Gardening and Beekeeping activity block in the middle school, which will allow ten students to be actively involved in the gardens and with the beehive.
