Brookside students and staff generated ‘buzz’ around the importance of bees

During the 2022-2023 school year, Brookside Elementary School was immersed in an innovative learning experience, where students, grades K-5, studied bees and the importance of their existence to people and the planet.

The aspiring activists learned about the anatomy of the bee, the process of pollination, factors impacting bee’s declining population, in addition to ways to ‘bee’come more civic-minded within the community. Brookside’s unique interdisciplinary bee curriculum focused on the essential question, “Can the World Live Without Bees?”

“As you know, Baldwin School District is focused on the future of learning and engaging our students in innovative learning experiences,” explained Anne Marie Squicciarini, principal of Brookside Elementary School. “Here at Brookside, we have been teaching our children how to solve real world problems, understand that learning is not confined to the four walls of our school building, and that children have the power to be activists and raise awareness to make change in a community.”

‘Bee’ginning last March, all grades, K-5, participated in the unique learning experience, where students inquired, researched, collaborated, produced, presented, and conversed about why saving this special group of pollinators is so critical to the environment and humans. Students partook in a variety of activities focused on the bee across various subject areas. From bee books, to bee songs, to beeswax candles, to bee facts on Google Slides, every grade contributed in their own way.

Kindergarten demonstrated how pollination happens through drawings, while first grade wrote “All About Bees” books. Third grade developed maps to illustrate where bees live in the world, and fourth grade honed their persuasive writing skills by composing letters to community members to encourage them to make a change. Lastly, fifth grade designed trifold boards, incorporating their petitions, artistic murals, Q&A’s and other bee trivia. The school even conducted a fundraiser and donated nearly $600 to The Bee Conservancy and named a bee in the Long Island Children’s Museum’s Bee Exhibit after contributing $100.

To celebrate these efforts while also spreading awareness, Brookside’s civic-minded curricula culminated with a “Save the Bees” rally during ‘No Mow May’—a movement dedicated to pausing lawnmowing during the month of May to help protect early season pollinators, including bees. Families were invited to the rally to teach them about the loss of honeybee colonies across the U.S. and how to help. To kick off the rally, swarms of students adorning bee attire—from their swaying antennas to their pointy stingers—buzzed into the gymnasium to the tune of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, proudly fluttering their hand-drawn “Save the Bees” signs. Student speakers representing each grade touched upon their efforts, followed by a brief video highlighting the countless activities that took place over the course of three months within the elementary school.

The rally also served as a platform to showcase the student-produced work happening throughout the building. After the presentation and video, families visited their children’s classrooms to see the progression of learning from kindergarten through fifth grade. Visitors were encouraged to ask students questions and find out how they, too, can ‘bee’ the change.