Disappearing Honeybees

Purpose: Students will use data to

create a graph illustrating the rise

Minnesota K-12 Science Standards and Benchmarks

and decline of the bee population

5.1.3.4.1

Use appropriate tools and techniques in gathering, analyzing and

in the U.S. and in Minnesota.

interpreting data.

5.4.4.1.1 Give examples of beneficial and harmful interaction with natural

Time: 30 minutes

systems.

Grade: 4-5

Minnesota K-12 Math Standards and Benchmarks

4.4.1.1 Use tables, bar graphs, timelines and Venn diagrams to display data

Materials:

sets. The data may include fractions or decimals. Understand that



Blank paper and graph

spreadsheet tables and graphs can be used to display data.

paper

5.4.1.2 Create and analyze double-bar graphs and line graphs by applying



Colored pencils or markers

understanding of whole numbers, fractions and decimals. Know how

to create spreadsheet tables and graphs to display data.

Background

Pollinators are important to us. Without pollination, one-third of the foods we

are accustomed to eating could not grow. This includes the majority of fruits,

many vegetables (or their seed crops) and even legumes such as alfalfa and

clover, which are fed to the livestock we eat as meat.

Many of the foods we grow and eat in the US are from crops that first grew in

other parts of the world. Some of these foods depend on another import for

pollination – the domestic honeybee.

The Spanish brought the first European honeybee colonies to the Americas in

the 16

Century. English Colonists brought more honeybees in 1622. Soon

honeybees had escaped into the wild and were buzzing all over North

America.

Procedure

1. Use the blank paper and/or graph paper to create a graph that

illustrates the number of bee colonies in the U.S. and Minnesota from

1987 to 2013. Graph options could include stem and leaf graph, line

graph, frequency table, bar graph, circle graph.

2. Using the graph you created, answer the following questions:

a. When was the number of bee colonies in the U.S. the largest?

When was the number largest in Minnesota?

b. When was the number of bee colonies in the U.S. the

smallest? When was the number smallest in Minnesota?

c. Is the current bee population in Minnesota increasing or

declining? In the US?

d. What are some possible reasons for the change in colonies

throughout the last 26 years?

e. What are current factors that affect the bee population?

Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom

Page 1

Disappearing Honeybees - Inventory Of Bee Colonies 1987 - 2013

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