Bees in the Classroom; Letter to Teachers
September, 2023
Dear School. Principle and Teachers,
I am writing to you to introduce an applied environmental science class conducted by our 501(c)3 non-profit, Cascade Girl Organization (www.cascadegirl.org). We have partnered with applied science writer Katharina Davitt to bring a class called, “Bees in the Classroom” to your school. This class fulfills and exceeds criteria stated in the Official Scientific Inquiry Scoring Guidelines for the State of Oregon. It has been presented to hundreds of students in Klamath,, Josephine and Jackson counties.
Our goal is to offer the class to as many third grade and fourth grade classrooms in Jackson and Josephine counties as possible. We are able to do this due to community support and the time donated by our volunteers.
The class is specifically for 3rd or 4th Graders and takes about an hour. It includes pollination and flower dissection and an activity called:, “What is Left if the Pollinators Are Gone”. It is interactive, fast paced and helps kids understand pollination and the impact of and need for pollinators. They learn how flowers attract pollinators, simple rules to help them differentiate bees and wasps and get to know their appearances, habits and characteristics. They also learn simple interventions for stings. No one gets bored!
The class is about 45 minutes long with 15 minutes between classes to reset. We can work with about 30 students at a time and will do two classes a day. We ask the teachers to set up the classes on one day. The students will work in tandem for some of the activities. The Teacher assists by helping to guide students as necessary and by handing out honey sticks during the class and afterward.
Subsequent to this class, students are instructed on a standardized activity to count pollinators outside on school grounds to determine the school grounds’ baseline attractiveness to insect pollinators.
Students will then be invited to participate in a zoom call in which they report their findings and learn how to improve the forage available at the school. Participating schools will receive seeds to improve their school grounds’ attractiveness and ability to provide pollinator forage. We will upload data to a central site available online.
Please be so kind as to email with your interest in incorporating this class at your school and we will follow up with further information. We look forward to sharing this unique class with you!
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Sharon Schmidt, Psy. D.
President, Cascade Girl Organization
CascadeGirl1@gmail.com
541.951.5595 // www.cascadegirl.org
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