ENVIRONMENT

The White House has released new strategies to boost the insects so crucial to our food supply. Here’s how you can do your part to support pollinators at home. (Nat Geo News)

Use our simple instructions to build your own bee hotel—we have three architectural models to choose from!

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers’ Toolkit—including a pollinator crossword puzzle!

Discussion Ideas

• What are pollinators? Why are they so important?
  • Pollinators transfer pollen from one plant to another, allowing the plants to reproduce. Pollinators can be animals, but they can also be forces such as wind.
  • Pollinators are crucial to our food supply and agricultural industry. According to the Native Pollinators in Agriculture Project, “approximately one out of every four mouthfuls of food and drink that we consume are produced from pollination services provided by pollinators.”
    • Here are just some examples of crops that depend on bees and other pollinators:
      • almonds
      • apples
      • broccoli
      • pears
      • carrots
      • citrus fruits
      • peppers
      • cherries
      • pumpkins
      • coffee
      • cucumbers
      • blackberries
      • olives
      • cranberries
      • raspberries
      • vanilla
      • strawberries
      • tea
      • blueberries
      • melons
      • tomatoes
      • cotton
      • soybeans
      • sunflowers
      • forage crops, such as hay, alfalfa, and clover, on which livestock farming depends
  • Learn more about “People, Plants and Pollinators” with this video and our Emerging Explorer, Dino Martins.

• Besides bees, what are some other examples of pollinators?
  • other insects, such as ants, wasps, flies, moths, and butterflies. Learn more about butterfly pollination here.
  • birds, such as hummingbirds. Learn more about bird pollination here.
  • mammals, such as bats. Learn more about bat pollination here.
  • reptiles, such as lizards. Learn more about lizards and other unusual pollinators here.
  • FYI: Different pollinators are attracted to different sorts of flowers. Check out the Pollinator Syndrome Traits Table here.

• What are some reasons why “pollinators have been in crisis for more than a decade”?
  • According to the Pollinator Task Force, the general decline in pollinator health can be linked to pests and pathogens, reduced habitat, lack of nutritional resources, and exposure to pesticides.

• Both the fun Nat Geo News article and our own activity say that building a “bee hotel” is a great way to help the pollination process. Don’t bees live in hives, not hotels?
  • Not all of them! According to Nat Geo News, most bees are solitary. According to our downloadable activity, “These bees live alone, not in hives. They do not make honey. Solitary bees are much less likely to sting than honeybees because they aren’t defending a hive.”

• What plants will attract bees and other pollinators to your bee hotel?
  • Find your ecoregion—you just have to know your ZIP code—and download the free guide here! These easy-to-read guides have it all—what plants attract what pollinators, when’s the best time to plant, and what kind of habitat each plant needs.
  • Put yourself on the map by registering your pollinator habitat below, and celebrate Pollinator Week starting June 15!

TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT

Nat Geo: 9 Ways You Can Help Bees and Other Pollinators At Home

Nat Geo: Build Your Own Bee Hotel

Nat Geo: People, Plants, and Pollinators

Pollinator Partnership: Ecoregional Planting Guides

Pollinator Partnership: Pollinator Week—June 15-21, 2015

Native Pollinators in Agriculture Project: Pollinators 101

(extra credit!) Pollinator Health Task Force: National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators