BEE-leive in your dreams - Making a difference through STEM outreach

Maybe you are a teacher and had a long week with the kids struggling on a subject.  Maybe you a scout leader and the kids were rowdy and unfocused this week.   Maybe you have a passion for outreach of some kind, but after one interactive night you never see those kids you talked to again.

If you are like me, then the question pops up am I really making a difference?  Is this time worth it?  I know that deep down in our hearts we all know it is worth it and it really does make a difference.  However the scientist in me asks for the evidence.   I wanted to find a personal story that speaks to the time and passion that our teachers, advocates and mentors spend investing into our younger generation.

In fact when I was at the 4H Youth Summit a few weeks ago, I walked right into one of these stories.   I met a wonderful group of students from Wake County, NC who our group with our Bayer shirts.   They immediately came up and introduced themselves and told us their story.   After hearing it, I asked them if they would write their story so I could share it.  Their story is a testament to the importance of outreach by all of us.  It is a perfect example of why the investment into our kids is worth every second.

Here is the story about how outreach inspired Humairaa, Ameen, Duha, and Anam to not only dig deeper and learn more about a subject, but start their own outreach activities. 

SO SMALL, YET SO MIGHTY

First and foremost, we would like to thank Bayer for giving us an opportunity to write about our journey on our enthusiasm in bees. Second, we would like to thank our mentors, Elizabeth Driscoll and Sarah Dinger, for sparking our interest in pollinators. We are a part of 4-H Wildweeds, located in Wake County, and Project Plants, a middle school horticultural science club exploring everything from soil and water to plants and pollinators. Project Plants is a partnership between the J.C. Raulston Arboretum, NC State University, and North Carolina 4-H. Humairaa and Ameen Zafirudin graduated during the first year of Project Plants 2014 -2015 while Duha Iqbal and Anam Akhtar graduated in 2015- 2016.   

During our time at Project Plants, we visited Bayer Bee Care Center located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. We explored the facility and were fascinated by the numerous jobs performed by pollinators, specifically bees. We learned about the importance of bees and how they aid in the production of many agricultural products. We became fascinated by bees after our visit. Generously, Bayer Bee Care granted us with funding to start our own youth-managed beehive in the JC Raulston Arboretum. Over the summer of 2016, Elizabeth Driscoll and Sarah Dinger invited us back to start the construction of our beehive. We all worked together to design and compile the pieces of the beehive. After hours of hard work, we completed the structure of the bee frames for the beehive. Later that year, our beehive thrived with many healthy and lively bees! We would observe the way they went from one flower to another collecting pollen. We learned many thought-provoking facts about bees, and wanted to share them with the rest of our community.            

We were all thrilled when we heard about the 4-H National Youth Summit so we decided to submit a proposal to the National Youth Summit on the topic, “Bee Good Stewards.” Pollinators play a significant role in each of our lives and the topic is engaging to all ages. We were eager to present our topic to our peers. We sought a hands on presentation, so we decided to put together activities that would spark interest for people of all ages.

Our very first activity in Project Plants was pinning bees. Bee pinning is essentially taking frozen bees and pinning their body parts on a piece of wood or styrofoam. There are many benefits associated with bee pinning. It is an excellent way to preserve bees, so we can further utilize them for research.  Additionally, we can examine the different, detailed parts of the bee, classify their species, distinguish between their genders, and learn about their behaviors. 

Bees secrete beeswax from special glands on their abdomen. Beeswax is incorporated in many items such as candles, lotions, sunscreens, chapstick, and many more. We decided a fun way to engage youth and adults would be by making chapstick. We bought beeswax pellets, essential oils, shea butter, and coconut oil to produce our chapstick. We melted all the materials in a pot and put it in a chapstick molds. Everyone enjoyed taking part in the production of organic and natural chapstick. They even got to take theirs home!

Undoubtedly, bees help us in many ways.  Bees greatly impact our lives by pollinating most of our fruits and vegetables. Therefore, we collectively came up with the idea to make smoothies. While using the fruits pollinated by bees for our third station. We used fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. We also used bananas but when we furthered our research we figured out bananas are pollinated by other organisms.  Despite that, we mixed all our fruits with honey to make smoothies and we each got to try some.

Our final station was called “Habitat Haven” where youth created landscape designs of pollinator gardens. This station required participants to use their creativity and imagination. Participants all came up with fascinating ideas and enjoyed designing various arrangements.

Our trip to the 4-H National Youth Summit was one of the best experiences we have ever had. We enjoyed sharing our knowledge about pollinators with others and providing fun-filled and educational activities to go along with that. When we first learned about pollinators, we were amazed to learn of the multitude of tasks performed by them. That is why we decided to dig deeper into this topic; we wanted to show everyone our appreciation for bees and all their vigorous work. Before Project Plants or our visit to Bayer Bee Care, none of us really thought about how greatly pollinators impact our daily lives. Pollinators are crucial to the existence of plants, animals, and us! So next time you go outside and come across a honeybee, do not run away out of fear; instead, take the time to admire how such a magnificent, yet tiny organism is critical to your life.

WOW.   These 4 walked into the Bayer bee care center and then found some amazing mentors at a local university where they learned and connected with a topic.  If not for those meetings, they may not be doing what they are now.   There are defining paths we take in our life at certain moments.  Most of the decisions we take for one path fork or another is influenced by those around us and this is why it is so important to give our time for outreach.  I now know that Humairaa, Ameen, Duha, and Anam are going to mentor others and inspire even more leaders as they place themselves in other's life paths. Stories like this inspire me and give me so much hope. For all the teachers, agvocates, and mentors out there, keep making a difference!

Here were some other pictures of their outreach.   What an amazing group!

Check out the Grow For It website too!  http://www.growforit.org/