When many people think about bees, they picture a honey bee. But our native bees are so much more fascinating, valuable, and imperiled. Through place-based project learning and participatory science projects, your students can explore nearby nature and meet the wild bees in their schoolyards and beyond.
On April 16, 2025, Brian Counselman, high school teacher at Malcolm Shabazz City High School, and Elizabeth Braatz, coordinator of DNR's Bumble Bee Brigade, shared how they engage students by investigating bees.
Bumble Bee Brigade
Get started here.
Explore Wisconsin Bumble Bee Species Profiles.
Check out the Bumble Bee Brigade Field Guide to Females and Males
Webpages
Check out the "Pollinators and Plants" page on EEK!
Activities
Invite your students to take the "Bee or Wanna-Bee Quiz."
Wild Bee Guide
Check out the University of Wisconsin - Extension's Wisconsin Bee Identification Guide.
Pollinator Cookbook
Could your class make a family-friendly cookbook? Check out Pollinator Partnerships "Pollinator-friendly Cookbook."
Bee Observation Cards
The Encyclopedia of Life created a set of Bee Observation Cards!
Here is a sample of the front and back of one of the 34 cards in the deck.
