The students at Calgary’s Belvedere Parkway School are as busy as bees this spring, creating outdoor features to attract bees.
“We want to bring back the bees,” Grade 3 student Ryley LaGrandeur said.
Students in the school’s Eco Leaders Club are building “bee hotels” to provide shelter for bees.
“We used bamboo sticks, pieces of wood that have drilled holes,” Grade 5 student Andrina Rowe said. “And these are paper straws.”
Students are also putting in a garden near the bee hotels, filling it with plants that attract pollinators.
“Without them, we wouldn’t have honey,” Grade 4 student Saleh Aksoy said.
Students have learned there’s a wide range of fruits and vegetables that need pollination to survive.
“If bees weren’t here, then a lot of us wouldn’t be here either,” Grade 3 student C.J. Constance said.
The students’ efforts have earned them recognition as Alberta’s first official Bee School.
The designation comes from the national non-profit organization Bee City, which promotes efforts to protect pollinators.
The students are now spreading the word on Bee City’s tips on how to create a welcoming environment for bees.
“They like to use pine cones to mark a scent,” Rowe said. “So they know how to get back to their house.”
With the bee hotels in place and the pollinator plants growing alongside them, the students hope they will soon be seeing plenty of bees around the school.
“We’ve learned so much,” LaGrandeur said. “All this work and now look where we are!”
Watch below: Urban beekeeper Liam Cobbe joins Global News Calgary with tips on how people can help bees ahead of world bee day.