Building Habitats
Expanding on our Spring 2023 AfterSchool Sessions,
Natalie Hesed returned to lead our rising 8th-10th graders in an immersive, girl-lead pollinator habitat restoration project.
This session, we were joined by a host of local educators such as naturalist Pete Dixon and UNCA STEAM Studios’ Amanda Simons. Students delved into homes and habitats of native pollinators, the taxonomy of various different native bees to how to build their own bee hotels.
Building Habitats, Building Community
With hard work and careful planning, students learned proper safety and operation of multiple power tools in the pursuit of building their own individual bee hotels. These pollinator homes were sent home with the students to encourage habitat restoration at their personal residences.
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Beyond the physical building of structures, students also built their knowledge. Out in our Heritage Garden, students learned how to safely capture 5 different species of bee present in our orchard. After bringing them inside, students observed each specimen under a microscope and made precise logs of each insect which was then uploaded to the Citizen Science Database INaturalist. ​
After expertly assembling their bee hotels, students visited the home-site of our partners at STEAM Studio on the UNCA campus and toured the pollinator gardens and full-sized pollinator hotels. Staff and current UNCA students guided students through the gardens, identifying native flora that supports a wide variety of pollinators here in the mountains of Western North Carolina.