Three Beewise summer camps were held this summer. The first session was held June 5-9, 2017, with enrollment limited to 10 youth ages 8-13 for each session. The Pueblo City and County Zoo hosts the 4-H STEAM Pueblo Apiary and provides space for our summer camps and family friendly pollinator maker series. Several 4-H youth and 4-H Leaders who have volunteered for the camps. The second session of BeeWise Summer Camp was held July 17-21, 2017, at the Pueblo Zoo, and the third session was held August 7-11, 2017. The camps have been a huge success and have been completely full each session.
Figure 1. BeeWise Session 1: June 5-9, 2017
BeeWise summer camp is full of fun and discovery, as youth dissect flowers when they learn about pollination, play the waggle dance game when learning about honey bee navigation, and identify honey bee classes (queen, drone, worker) from the safety of their beekeeping suits. The first session of camp was special because the youth got to help install the weather station and learn about all the functions of the station and how it works and collects data. The youth also engage with the art of beekeeping from honey extraction to candle and lip balm making.
This camp provides 15 contact hours of STEM learning focused on engaging students in learning by doing and project based learning. We also engage the Maker aspect, as kids help make frames for the hive or help do some task for the apiary that needs to be done. They also get to make a BeeWise button that they can wear on their shirt or hat.
After the summer, we plan to demonstrate the smart hive at the Pueblo Mini Maker Faire in late October. We hope to have the project built out into a full kit by early spring so we can implement a few kits at local schools and community spaces in spring of 2018.
To learn more about BeeWise, visit the project page or contact Jane Crayton at craytonj@pueblocounty.us