Education &
TRAINING
Education & TRAINING
NATIVEBEES. at Wauchope High School WAUCHOPE HIGH SCHOOL’S AGRICULTURE PROGRAMME IS A DIVERSE AND INTERESTING ONE. TEACHER DAVID STARR EXPLAINS THE WORK STUDENTS HAVE BEEN DOING WITH NATIVE BEES - A FASCINATING SUBJECT THAT HELPS EXPLAIN JUST HOW OUR FOOD CHAIN WORKS AND WHERE OUR FOOD ACTUALLY COMES FROM.
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i David. What’s your role at Wauchope High School? My role at Wauchope High School is a varied one. I am the Year Advisor for the current group of Year 10 students, and I am the boys’ advisor. My main teaching area is Primary Industries, which is a VET course where students obtain a Certificate 2 in Agriculture. This course also allows for the students to use their two units towards their ATAR. I also teach Junior Agriculture to Years 8 and 10; these are elective courses that run for either 120 or 200 hours. Science is another subject area that I work in; I currently teach Year 9 and 10 Junior Science. Some of your students have studying native bees this year - what led to working with these creatures in particular? The Agriculture Department at Wauchope used to have the European honey bee. The main issue with this type of bee is the need to wear protective clothing and student safety with regards to allergies and anaphylaxis from bee stings. We saw this as a too big a risk to continue, and therefore we ceased to have bees here for quite a number of years. I first heard about the Australian native bees at our biannual Ag teachers’ conference in Armidale a few years ago. One of our elective information sessions was on entomology and the role of pollinators in society. After the presentation during open discussion, one of our fellow colleagues, Steve Maginnity, spoke to us regarding a unit of work he was writing as an education and conservation kit for schools on native bees. After reading a few articles regarding the native bee, I could see that it would quite easily fit into our junior and senior
70 greater port macquarie focus.
There are two genera of social native bees, agriculture programmes here at Wauchope these being Trigona and Austroplebeia. The High. What are some of the interesting facts species that we have are Trigona Carbonaria, students have been able to find out about which is best suited to our climate here on the native bees? Mid North Coast. They can be kept in many The main reason this type of bee receives other geographical areas, though they are the tick of approval from us is that it has been susceptible to the extremes of heat and cold, identified as one of the 16 species of especially when kept in artificial hives. social bees that live in colonies During extreme heat it is usually similar to European honey a good idea to put them in a bees. All social species of shaded area or cover them e Australian native bees with a wet hessian bag. It is vital that th are stingless. This Also in extreme cold, youth of today ledge provides the students the hive construction have some know to with a much safer needs to be very thick and skills of how food grow their own environment, where it timber, insulated d and how the en is much easier to have or covered with a e th in product ends up y for a hands on approach Styrofoam box to ad supermarkets re without the risk of bee ensure the hive doesn’t .” the consumer sting allergies. die. The native bees are The students have poor heat regulators and studied how native bees use a have to envelope the brood in combination of tree resin and wax a thin sheet of cerumen; whereas, (cerumen) for building structures within the European bees are good heat the hive. The students have also learned regulators and use movement and fanning that the Aboriginal people have used to keep the brood warm. What behaviour do native bees generally them for their honey (sugar bag) and wax exhibit at this time of year, when the for making tools for thousands of years. The weather is colder? students have found that once the egg is laid in Tridona carbonaria bees are limited in their the brood cell, it is then filled and sealed with distribution to subtropical and tropical parts enough food stores for its entire development, of eastern Australia and will only leave the compared to the European Honey Bee, which hive to forage when the temperature exceeds has to continually feed the developing larvae. 18 degrees Celsius and are below 35 degrees Native bees only use the brood cell once, then Celsius. So at the moment, the bees will not it is discarded; whereas, the European bees’ are normally be about until around lunch time to repeatedly cleaned and used. Which particular species of native bees forage. Therefore, the bees will be relying on have you been working with, and how their stored sources of nectar and pollen to get do they differ from the more commonly them through until spring. What other agricultural topics are known honey bee?
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Wauchope High students studying this year that are of particular interest? The students have been working through a variety of topics, which include poultry production, which involves incubating eggs and rearing the chicks in the brooder. The Wauchope High School stud cattle are a central focus point for the students, where students participate in calf handling and leading, show preparation and parading. Having such a large number of students handling them and quietening the animals makes them much easier to wash, groom and lead. Obviously not all students can parade the cattle at the local shows, so this task is carried out by those students who are part of the cattle team. This group of students spend their lunch times and one afternoon a week with Mr Pink and farmer John to train the cattle to lead and parade in preparedness for the show season. How do you feel Agriculture can benefit kids and our community? Agriculture is very beneficial for all kids, especially with all the social media and news headlines associated with where does my food come from, how it was produced and who grew it. It is vital that the youth of today have some knowledge and skills of how to grow their own food and how the end product ends up in the supermarkets ready for the consumer. Without Agriculture, we don’t have food; if we don’t have pollinators, we don’t have food. By demonstrating to the students what is involved in Agricultural processes, hopefully they will have some appreciation for those farmers who manage to feed us all with very little recognition for their efforts. Thanks David. Interview by Jo Robinson.