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Students at Leigh School are getting a hands-on lesson in biodiversity and climate resilience through a new programme that uses bees to explore the relationship between people and nature.
Bee Resilient, which formally started in July, is designed to give primary school students the opportunity to learn about bees through hands-on activities.
It is running its first sessions covering honeybees, hive structure, pollination and resilience at Leigh, which is serving as the programme’s first education hub.
Co-founder Kelly Hamilton said the initiative received a $40,000 grant through the Te Ara Urutau – Climate and Emergency Ready Fund, which supports communities to take meaningful action on climate change and prepare for emergencies.
“The programme funded by Auckland Council runs until next March, and the funding is supporting facilitated workshops, school sessions, educational resources, climate adaptation work, programme coordination and the development of the school’s final adaptation plan,” Hamilton said.
“We are using Leigh School as an opportunity to develop, test and refine a programme that we hope can eventually be delivered on a much larger scale in schools across New Zealand.”
The team’s next goal is to develop the Bee Resilience Lab – The Harmonic Hive, a purpose-built mobile bee classroom equipped with microscopes, an observation hive and other equipment that would allow children to explore the world of bees up close.
“Children are naturally curious about bees, so the hands-on elements really bring the learning to life,” Hamilton said.
“Once they understand how important bees are for food, biodiversity and the wider ecosystem, they immediately start thinking about what they can do themselves, and that is exactly the curiosity we want to encourage.”
As the programme progresses, students will explore environmental and climate risks relevant to their own community, including flooding, drought, coastal impacts, biodiversity loss and food resilience, while considering practical ways their school and community could respond as part of a climate adaptation plan.
“Our dream is to see more children learning from real hives, more beehives in schools, more pollinator-friendly gardens and a generation of young people who understand biodiversity because they have actually touched it, observed it and cared for it.”
Schools wanting to take part in the project will soon be able to register their interest through beeresilient.co.nz.
