‘Love Food? Love Bees!’ Australian curriculum aligned units
Our Food Supply Depends on Bees!
| As we approach the year 2050 it is estimated that the world’s population will reach 9.7 billion people. Although this seems a long way away, it is within students’ lifetime. Because of this expected population increase we need to be smart about how we use resources today, to make sure they are available in abundance in future years.
Bees pollinate a whopping TWO THIRDS of our food production. Most Fruit, Nuts, Vegetables, Seeds, and Livestock Feed production is dependant on the existence of Bees. They are more vulnerable to disease and pests through the overuse of pesticides, herbicides, and modern agricultural practices. Human activity is reducing the habitat and food sources. |
The Australian Curriculum aligned “Love Food? Love Bees!” Year 5 & 6 integrated unit explores the importance of bees and enables students to take real and bee-friendly action in their community.
This unit supports students to inquire into the role of bees in the ecosystem and how they can flourish in their role as pollinators. Students develop an understanding of bees, their role as pollinators, the threats they face and the steps they can take to be bee-friendly. By practising critical and creative thinking, students will be equipped to consider the impact of bees based on social, environmental and economic criteria and will be encouraged to take action around this important issue.
Beeing Curious |
Beeing Observant |
Beeing Mindful |
Bees, Pollination and Food |
| English, Science This tuning-in lesson introduces the topic of bees through a ‘Stand on the Line’ activity, wherein students consider a number of statements and justify their opinion. |
Science Students are connected to the wonder of bees by observing them interacting with plants in their schoolyard and in their gardens. |
Health, Science This mindfulness activity is designed to connect students to their local environment while teaching awareness of posture, breathing, relaxation and concentration. |
Science, English, Bus. Ec., Maths Students will be introduced to the connection between bees, flowering plants and food through a range of activities. They will view a short video about the symbiotic relationship between bees and plants. |
Bee’s Knees and Flower Power |
What Are The Threats? |
Beeing Helpful |
Beauty of Bees |
| English, Science In this lesson, students will dissect a flower to examine the internal anatomy that assists with attracting pollinators. They will then explore the body structure of bees that assist with the pollination process. |
Science, English, Bus. Ec., Maths This lesson uses the jigsaw classroom method to facilitate student inquiry into the threats faced by bees. Students become experts in one threat faced by bees by reading information, then work with their group and present what they have learned. |
Science, English, Bus. Ec., Maths In this lesson, students find ways to address the threats faced by bees and share the solutions they find with the class. They will adopt a research strategy to use when engaging in an online search to find out about how to be bee friendly. . |
Arts, Maths Students explore the concept of a social enterprise. After reviewing prior knowledge students identify what a social enterprise is. They then look at how the action the GPS team took could be converted into a social enterprise. . |
Each lesson contains hands-on activities, tips, content information, assessment ideas, engaging videos and a range of other tools that support teachers to navigate this unit. There is also a digital library that has a load of fun and entertaining bee information. There are also a great range of resources in the Cool Australia Toolbox to use in the classroom too.
NEW LESSONS!
Investigating Native Bees – Year 5/6
Students develop an understanding of the importance of native bees and propose actions to protect them. They begin by working collaboratively to undertake secondary research in order to create a class library about native bees.
Learning@Home-Observing Native Bees-
Children are given the opportunity to explore Australian native bees. They will begin by looking at pictures of native bees and finding out why native bees are important.
Love Food? Love Seeds!- Early Learning
Early learning educators! Connect your children to the natural world through sensory and play-based learning with Love Food? Love Seeds! Developed with Cool Australia, this brand-new unit provides 6 lessons to help children understand how food grows from seeds.
This set of lessons is designed to help connect children to the wonders of the natural world through sensory and play-based learning. Growing Seeds, Comparing Seeds, Up Close With Bees, Bees in the Yard, Where Can You Find Seeds? and Seed Walk.
Delve into Food Security with the NEW Love Food? Love Bees!-Food Security and Sustainability- Year 9 & 10
Most students connect bees to a painful sting or the honey on their breakfast but have little idea about their crucial role in Australia’s food security. Most fruit, nuts, vegetables, seeds and even livestock feed are dependent on bees.
Introduction to Food Security Geography. In this lesson, students will be introduced to food security in Australia and globally. A class discussion is used to identify key aspects of food security before students work in groups to critically analyse a range of clips about food production and food security.
Powerful Pollinators. Geography
In a flipped classroom-style activity students watch clips at home to deepen their knowledge about the importance of bees to our food security and the causes of declining bee populations.
Sustainable Agriculture Geography
In this lesson, students will examine the concept of sustainability as it applies to agriculture, and explore links between sustainable agriculture and food security.
A Sustainable Food Future In this lesson students will review and critically examine typical features of sustainable agriculture to complete a Diamond Ranking activity.
Supporting Sustainable Food In this lesson students will review and critically examine typical features of sustainable agriculture to complete a Diamond Ranking activity. They will examine different categories of food producers and identify examples for each
Taking Action for Food Security Geography
In this lesson, students will create a proposal to improve your school’s support of sustainable agriculture. To begin this lesson, students will identify a range of food-related actions that they can take to reduce their own environmental footprints.
You can also use Love Food? Love Bees! to connect classroom learning to global and national calendar events – World Bee Day on 20 May 2021 and Australian Pollinator Week 7-14th November 2021.
Download and print our new ‘How to create a Bee Friendly Garden‘ flyer. It has lots of great simple ideas on how to be ‘Bee Friendly!