CORVALLIS, Ore. – Three familiar bees – honeybee, bumblebee and metallic – perch on a bright-as-butter sunflower on the front of a new activity booklet.
Beckoning kids, friends and family, “Explore the Bees of Oregon,” produced by the Oregon State University Extension Service explains how the worlds of bees and food intermingle in essential ways. The publication, which is geared to all ages, specifically provides knowledge to kids while they’re having fun, said Andony Melathopoulos, Extension pollinator specialist and assistant professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
“The first thing is that it’s nicely laid out,” said Melathopoulos, one of the founders of the Oregon Bee Project, an innovative inter-agency collaboration that educates the public about pollinator health. “There are the coloring pages, a word finder, trading cards and recipes. It’s like a Swiss Army knife. It has so many entry points.”
The idea for the activity book came from Sarah Kincaid, former entomologist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture and now a faculty research assistant for the OSU Extension Pollinator Health Program and the education coordinator for the Oregon Bee Atlas/Master Melittologist program.
The idea kicked around until Melathopoulos had the idea to approach Food Hero, an Extension program with the mission to improve the nutrition and health of Oregon children through their consumption of fruits and vegetables.
“It was a perfect fit,” said Lauren Tobey, Food Hero coordinator and nutrition educator in the Oregon SNAP-Ed program. “Our goal is to find different ways to get Oregonians engaged in growing and eating fruits and vegetables. Not only does this activity book do that, but it also teaches them about the importance of pollinator health.”
The printed book, which was sent out to hundreds of teachers in Oregon. It is also available on the Food Hero website. It highlights the process of pollination and its importance in the food chain. Since Oregon has such a breadth of agricultural diversity – 200 specialty crops – the role of bees in the ecosystem is complex. Explore the Bees of Oregon is meant to get to the heart of the complexity without talking down to readers.
“We wanted to let people know there are some amazing stories about how our bees and agriculture co-exist,” Melathopoulos said. “We give readers a glimpse of the bee diversity we have and how interconnected it is with the working land. The book is really rigorous; there are no shortcuts. I’ve seen a lot of material that makes too many concessions. On this one every detail is well thought-out.”
Eight full-page bee illustrations make good material for coloring and each comes with “Field Notes” that feature descriptions and fun facts. For instance, leaf cutter bees get their name from nibbling out small pieces of leaf to build their nests. And long-horned bees are picky – they only pollinate plants in the sunflower family.
Each bee illustration is packaged with a Food Hero recipe made with a food pollinated by the bee in question – Cherry Crumble from the fruit crop pollinated by mason bees; Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies baked with carrot seed grown in Oregon and pollinated by honeybees; and herbal tea made from herbs pollinated by green metallic sweat bees.
“The guide is interactive and gives readers the opportunity to explore the world of bees creatively through a variety of activities,” Melathopoulos said.
Tucked into the pages are lessons like a description of a seed, how honey is made, the parts of a bee and how to be kind to bees. Eight trading cards, four published in every other book, have photographs on both front and back and are hoped to inspire a brisk trading card exchange, or can be used as a bookmark or field identifier.
One of the first questions Melathopoulos and Kincaid are asked is, “Aren’t people afraid of bees?” Inevitably, the first thing the students say when you walk into a classroom is that they’ve been stung. But the activity book takes the fear away.
“It’s the entryway of how people drop their fear and learn how to explore them,” Melathopoulos said. “The book isn’t a cartoon. It has pictures of actual insects people can see. After they read the book, they then go out and find the best way to engage with bees and usually they engage by observing.”
All of the bees in Explore the Bees of Oregon can be found in the backyard, on a walk or at the park. It only takes one exposure to bees to get kids and adults asking questions. The hope is that that awareness will get them engaged and become better critical thinkers.
“For me, one of my favorite things in life is to get everyone excited about the natural world around them,” Kincaid said. “Bees are a perfect vehicle. They’re so charismatic and do such cool things. Once people start learning about all the things bees do, they start asking more and more questions. That leads them to having a new understanding of the natural world.”
