Summary Look at mason bee cocoons then place them in a mason bee house installed near early flowering plants. Science content Biology: Features, Adaptations of Living Things (K, 1, 3, 7) Biology: Classification of Living Things, Biodiversity (1, 3) Biology: Life Cycles (2) Biology: Food Webs, Ecosystems, Biomes (3, 4) Science competencies (+ questioning + manipulation + others that are in every activity) Processing/analyzing: experiencing and interpreting the local environment (K up) Materials mason bee cocoons e.g. West Coast seeds product mason bee house e.g. bought or home made an East facing tree or wall, where the house can be placed out of reach Procedure Hand out magnifiers and practice using them by looking at fingerprints. Take time to make sure every student is using it correctly. Tip the cocoons out of their box and place on students' desks, so that they can look at them closely. Before half an hour is up, return the cocoons to their box, and take outside to place in the installed mason bee house. (If the cocoons warm up for too long, bees may start emerging!) Students might hear the bees moving around inside. Explain how the bees will hatch within a couple of weeks (the males first). They feed on flower nectar near to where they hatch. Then they will mate, and the females will lay eggs in the tubes of the house. Over the following months, into the Fall, the eggs will hatch, a larva will grow, and eventually make a cocoon to protect it through the winter. The adult bees will hatch out next early Spring. (Cocoons that have been harvested and sold are kept at fridge temperature, so that the bees do not emerge until the cocoons are placed outside.) Attached documents animal life cycles summary_0.pdf Grades taught Gr 2 Gr 3
