Photo Credit: Valerie via Compfight

When we were learning about Biodiversity earlier in the year,

we learned a lot about food webs and food chains.

Then we learned about the snow leopard.

We learned what would happen to its food web

and its habitat if it became extinct.

We found a really interesting video

that we think you may be interested in.

It is on Vimeo so you can watch it in class.

Made by Greg Haines, it tells about the good things

that happened to the food web

and the habitat in Yellowstone Park

when wolves were reintroduced.

We think you will like it.

Polly the Polar Bear, has come to visit St. Brigid’s Greystones,

all the way from St. Peter’s in Bray.

She has come to visit Brigid the Biodiversity Bee

and has told her all about Polar Bears

and why they are endangered.

This is the story so far.

Now it is Brigid’s turn,

to tell Polly her side of the story.

‘Well first, said Brigid,

‘it is important to know about the important job bees do:

Read all about the important job that bees do HERE.

You can read more about that important job of pollinating flowers here.

Why are bees endangered?

Well you can find out the answer to this question if you click on this link.‘

‘We’ve done a lot of good work,’ said Polly.

I think it is time, I thought about getting back to Bray…’

 
Watch out 2nd Class, St.Peter’s,

Polly is on her way back to you 🙂

Polly the Polar Bear, has come to visit St. Brigid’s, Greystones all the way from St.Peter’s in Bray. She has come to visit Brigid the Biodiversity Bee and tell her all about Polar Bears and why they are endangered.

Click on this link for the story so far.

Photo Credit: Lori Greig via Compfight

Polly explained that ‘reducing our carbon footprint’ will reduce global warming and that will help the polar bears. We can do this by:

1. Turning off lights, computers, TVs and other electrical equipment when we are not using them.

2. Turning off the water while we’re brushing our teeth.

3. Walking or cycling instead of using the car.

4.  Not wasting paper. Remember to reduce, reuse and recycle.

5. Growing your own food.

6. Buying food that is grown locally

Polly said that you can find your carbon footprint

and how to reduce it by using this 

Kids’ Carbon Calculator from Cool The World.com

‘Well,’ said Polly, now you have heard all about Polar Bears and why they are endangered perhaps you can tell me about bees’.

‘Why certainly,’ said Brigid. ‘That’s what we will do tomorrow’. 

Click on this link to see how this story began:

St.Peter’s Polar Bear, Polly came to visit Brigid the Biodiversity Bee and St.Brigid’s.

Polly and Brigid had a long chat today.

Polly told Brigid all about Polar Bears

and why they are endangered.

Photo Credit: patries71 via Compfight

Polly said: ‘Click on the top tab on this link from Kids National Geographic.com

where it says ‘Video and Sound’

to see some of my Polar Bear cousins’.

Polly said: ‘You can also learn about Polar Bears here:

Polar Bears for Kids – Polar Bears International.org‘

Brigid was wondering where Polar Bears lived.

Polly explained Polar Bears are found in the wild

in Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway.

They are carnivores.

They don’t drink water.

They get the liquids they need from the food they eat.

Did you know Polar Bears are amazing long distance swimmers?

Photo Credit: Valerie via Compfight

Polar bear feet act like snowshoes.

Photo Credit: Ali Haines via Compfight

Our Green Schools Mascot, Brigid the Biodiversity Bee

has been going from class to class,

spreading the news about biodiversity.

She took time out from her busy schedule to make this slideshow,

showing how we are encouraging biodiversity around the school.

If you would like to read more about what we have done

click on this link to our Green Schools Blog

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks via Compfight

Everyone at school has been working very hard towards our fifth green flag. This one is for biodiversity. Why not take a look at our Green Schools Blog. Click on this link to see!

 Photo Credit: Max Westby via Compfight

In many parts of the world, honeybees are dying. This is causing a lot of worry. This is because be pollinate important food crops.

Scientists are trying to figure out why bees are dying.

What makes this mystery really hard to solve is that bees are hard to study.

1. Most bees die away from the hive, so the scientists don’t have any dead bees to examine.

2. Bees have a natural life cycle and because if this when scientist return to a hive after even two weeks, about half the bees they studied on their first visit will be dead and they will be replaced by new ones.

3. Being a scientist detective is even trickier because, bees travel up to 3 kilometres away from their hive to find nectar from flowers. So that when bees become ill or poisoned, it is hard to know where the damage was done.

Scientists do have some ideas about what could be causing the bees to die.

1. They could be poisoned by insect sprays that people use to kill insects that are pests. Another name for these insect sprays are pesticides and insecticides.

2. We learned about overgrazing when we heard about what could happen if the Snow Leopard, for example disappeared from the food chain. See this link on our school’s Green Schools Blog to find out. Overgrazing would mean the fields and meadows when the bees get their food would be destroyed.

3. Bees may not be getting enough food to be strong and healthy. This is also because the habitats where their food grows; meadows and fields and being taken over by building.

Photo Credit: Kacper Gunia via Compfight

For example: Where we live around Greystones used be full of meadows, fields and forests. Now they are full of houses.

The hints that this happened are in the names of some of the estates.

1. So Heathervue was once a hillside covered in heather, whether the bees could collect nectar.

Photo Credit: Martin LaBar via Compfight

2. Perhaps there were cherry trees in Delgany before the houses in Cherry Glade  and Cherry Drive were built.

There are other reasons too, that scientists think that the number of bees is falling.

1. They think that tiny insects called mites feed on bees.

2. Others think that it is a virus or bacteria that is damaging the bee population.

Most of all it is important to protect the bee population because they pollinates so many plants that become food for the human race.

As part of the work we are doing in school for our fifth Green School Flag on the theme of Biodiversity, we are learning about bees and pollination.

Honey bees help plants to make the fruit and nuts we like to eat, by carrying pollen from one plant or flower to the next. Important crops like oats, corn and wheat are pollinated by the wind. But many other plants like apple trees, depend on birds, bats and insects.

Bees don’t wake up each morning and set off to go pollinating plants and flowers. Their instinct it to collect nectar from the flowers. They feed this sweet liquid to the Queen Bee. Even though the pollinating that they do is a very important job for the world, the bees do it by accident.

This is how it happens: If you look at a bee close up, you will see that they have hairy legs and bodies. The pollen on the flowers stick to their hairy bodies.

Here is a picture:

 Photo Credit: Reinhold Stansich via Compfight

We have learned that our supermarket shelves would be empty of many of the fruits and vegetables that are available there, if it weren’t for bees. Click on this link  to see a list of these on our school’s Green School Blog.

As well as the fruit and vegetables that we eat, many of the animals that live on our farms, eat foods that bees pollinate. It is said that every third spoonful that we eat, we have thanks to the work of the honey bees. If bees weren’t around to pollinate the plants, we wouldn’t have a choice of as many different foods to eat.

If you would like to read more about bees and pollination, check out these useful links.

Many thanks to Klaudia, Sinead, Zara and Sarah from Fourth Class for researching this information.

Do come and see what happened when …

Brigid the Biodiversity Bee came to visit.

Brigid came to visit!

on St. Brigid’s Green Schools

Photo Credit: Antonio Picascia via Compfight

We are working towards our fifth Green Flag.

We are learning about Biodiversity.

As part of this we are learning about

the importance of bees

and pollination.

If you would like to learn about this too,

here are some useful links:

1. A short introduction from ‘Pollination Canada’

Pollination for Kids and Teachers

2. Colourful and eye catching explanations

of pollination and pollinators from

Kids Growing Strong.org

3. A more detailed account is to be found

on the US Forestry site:

Our Future Flies on the Wings of Pollinators.

Photo Credit: Marty Desilets via Compfight 

Here are two videos on Vimeo:

This first one is from Oxford University Press.

An animation by Mark Ruffle, it is

less than a minute long,

and is about bee pollination:

Pollination: Science Animation

This second video is less just over seven minutes long.

Introduced by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg

the real life film footage begins after three minutes.

Though inspired by the vanishing of the honeybee,

the high speed camera work also features pollinators

such as the hummingbird, butterflies and bats.

‘The Hidden Beauty of Pollination’.

And finally, some food for thought

from the TTA Science Department:

Click HERE for a closer look 😉