New educational bee station for education for sustainable development

The educational apiary was set up by the department of "Didactics of Biology" under the direction of Prof. Dr. Helge Martens. About a month ago, two bee colonies were set up at the university's AVZ. Here, biology student teachers are to be sensitized to bees and their way of life as part of a seminar.

"The teaching apiary is part of our teaching-learning laboratory FLOX," explains Charlotte Wolff, coordinator of the teaching apiary. "Teachers of tomorrow will learn here how to thematically address bees and their importance for the environment in their lessons. Bees are wonderfully suited as a model organism for education for sustainable development. Using a beehive, students can learn so much about biological processes. On a small scale, we can observe interrelationships here that are usually much too big to see."

Students learn how to work at the apiary during the semester. They pass on the knowledge they have learned as part of a cooperation with schools, to students who visit the teaching apiary at the University of Kassel.

The semester ends with the joint honey harvest: "Only a few have ever experienced for themselves how honey is extracted. However, we give most of the honey back to the bees so that they can survive the winter. We bottle the rest, and the students can take a jar home as a souvenir."

Contact:
Charlotte Wolff
University of Kassel
Department 10 Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Email: wolff[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
Tel.: +49 561 804-4327