‘Really cool’: W. P. Wagner students abuzz over addition of bee hive to natural science program

Students at a south Edmonton school will have the chance to study thousands of bees as part of a natural science program. Amanda Anderson reports.

The population of W.P. Wagner School just grew by thousands.

The southeast Edmonton public school’s natural science program welcomed on Monday a bee hive with between 5,000 and 10,000 bees.

“It’s really cool that they have already started to make some of the honeycomb because they just got here, but they have been working hard all night to build things,” said Grade 10 student Fiona Clark.

According to their teacher, Scott McMillan, the learning opportunities are “endless,” from the bees’ teamwork, to roles within the hive, to insect’s connection to the natural world.

“They can get out of the hive through one hole right here, they go to the outside world, collect all their pollen, bring it back, make honey out of that, feed their young, feed themself in the winter – and that’s that’s their hive,” McMillan told CTV News Edmonton.

“We’ll be coming in and checking on them, but with an observation hive, there should be very little work to do and they’ll take care of themselves.”

A beekeeper on staff will help with any technical work and the bees’ overwintering.

“These, potentially, will be here for years… so this will be a long-term investment in our school,” McMillan said.

About 200 students go through the natural science program each year, but he hopes the bees will help that number grow.

“I’m really excited to take it next year and see everything that’s going to happen,” Clark said.

“Going through the school system, you spend your days inside, you spend your days thinking about the Pythagorean theorem and Shakespeare, or whatever, but just remembering something so simple as the bees that we share the world with, that enable global food production through pollinating plants (and) enabling all this beautiful flora we see around us, I feel like it’s just really … humbling to remind ourselves of these tiny but mighty creatures’ presence in our world, and also how much they do for us,” added Grade 11 student Saanjh Virk.

While the school purchased the bees, McMillan received a grant from the Bee Cause Project, a youth environmental stewardship program, for the bee hive.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson