Rationale
People are spending increasingly more time indoors. As much as 96% of our day is spent inside; so consequently, we are experiencing the outdoors less and less. This is an unfortunate and unhealthy trend. Nature deficit disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv in his book, Last Child in the Woods, identifies a result of this extreme amount of time spent indoors. Children are not being exposed to nature on a regular basis and are not making a connection to their natural world. He points out that the children who play outside are less likely to get sick, be stressed, or become aggressive, and are more adaptable to life’s unpredictable turns.1 I want to mention this phenomenon because I think it pertains to many of my students. Preparing and teaching a unit about nature gives me an opportunity to change this, even just a bit. Each year I have young students who are uncomfortable being outside and interacting with ‘nature’ and students who are the opposite, ready to participate in any activities or lessons. Certainly, to understand, or at least be aware of how we can use nature as an example to model from, I want my students to be exposed to the fun and learning that happens through scientific exploration and discovery, particularly outside. One additional advantage will be, in this case, that hopefully, my young learners will no longer be afraid of bees!
Essential questions to consider during this unit:
What can we learn from bees that can help us?
How do honeybees help plants and people?
What do honeybees eat? How do bees communicate? What do bees do during winter?
How do they collect and use nectar from plants and is there something we can learn and repeat from the bees’ methods?
Why is it important to think about how we can mimic the behaviors of animals (and plants) to improve our lives?
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