Bright Ideas Spotlight: Cape Hatteras Honey Bees

The Bright Ideas grant program, administered by North Carolina’s electric cooperatives, has awarded $10.2 million in support of innovative, classroom-based projects since 1994. Each year, close to 600 grants are funded across the state — this is one example from the 2016 round of funding.

School: Cape Hatteras Secondary School

Sponsoring co-op: Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative

Project name: “Cape Hatteras Honey Bee Project”

Participating students: 300

Teacher:  Evan Ferguson

Project in a nutshell:  An ongoing beekeeping project (expanding from two hives to four with the Bright Ideas grant) is introducing students to the practical aspects of beekeeping, disease treatment, pollination and honey production. The project feeds into lessons in foods and nutrition classes, biology, and earth and environmental classes.

From the teacher:  “Our programs focus on sustainability and understanding how we as humans can be good stewards of the earth. This hands-on project helps to further support these goals by giving students the opportunity to work alongside and learn from our world’s great pollinator. Students are inherently curious about what goes on in a beehive. Bees are so organized and complex. It’s like another world in a hive, so it’s wonderful to be able to expose students to that diversity. Beekeeping not only teaches students science and nutrition skills, but caring for another species promotes empathy and responsibility.”