Getting Started with
The Buzz About Native Bees

1. Read the Background for Teachers essay. It contains more in-depth information that will help you answer questions and guide students’ exploration.
2. Familiarize yourself with the For Kids content for “The Buzz About Native Bees.”
3. Review the classroom- and field-based hands-on activities in Teacher-Led Activities and choose the ones suited to your curricular needs and classroom circumstances.
4. Introduce the topic with a discussion. Here are some suggested discussion-starters:
• What do you know about bees?
• Are there different kinds of bees? How are they different?
• What do bees eat?
• Why do you often see bees around flowers?
• What is pollination?
5. Review these topic-specific vocabulary words or have students define them as they discover them in context in the “The Buzz About Native Bees” student magazine (PDF):
   

   abdomen
   aggressive
   antenna(e)
   brood chamber
   carnivore
   climate change
   colonies
   compound
   crop
   decline
   decompose
   ecosystem
   emerge
   Endangered Species List

   environment
   evolved
   habitat
   hive
   insect
   interdependence
   larva
   locomotion
   mimic
   native
   nectar
   ocelli
   organic
   parasite
   

   perceive
   pesticide
   pollen
   pollinator
   population
   pupa
   sensory
   solitary
   swarm
   thorax
   threatened
   vegetarian

   Definitions for all vocabulary words can be found in the online Naturalist’s Glossary.
6. With the whole class or in small groups, review and discuss the content and features of the student magazine and other student content that you’ve incorporated into your teaching or that students have explored on their own.
7. Do the hands-on activities you’ve selected, and follow up with review and discussion.
8. Download the Assessment questions and answer key for each topic to use as a tool for evaluating students’ learning experiences with Audubon Adventures.
9. Extend learning with topic-specific print, online, and video resources found in the Naturalist’s Bibliography.

Photo: Dan Mullen.