Four members of Class 5, selected for their interest in the way things work, as well as for their creative thinking, were lucky enough to spend the day at Nottingham Girls’ High School taking part in a ‘S.T.E.A.M’ event. The acronym stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths and all of those skills were definitely put to the test as we learned more about bees – the engineers of the natural world!
Our main challenge for the day was to create a bee hotel – a habitat for a solitary bee to nest in. We learned that there are 220 different species of wild, solitary bees in the UK – some of them, unrecognisable from the yellow and black striped creatures we know! We learned all about the reasoning behind the hexagonal habitats they build and agreed that they really are very clever insects indeed.
After drawing our design carefully, the children got to work – cutting, sanding and trimming the pieces needed for their creation.
After this stage, we needed to assemble our hotel and stuff it full of bee-friendly materials which had all been measured, cut and sorted ready for the task ahead. Team work was definitely required and a steady pair of hands came in useful too.
And I suggest that our finished hotel deserves a 5 Star rating – considering the amount of care and thought that went into its creation. Well done to our budding engineers – it was a pleasure to spend the day with you. And I hope that many different bees enjoy living in your hotel as much as you all enjoyed building it!
