Sixty students and their families gathered at the Blue Mountains Organic Community Gardens in Katoomba in November to observe native bees and other insect pollinators’ reaction to artificial flowers.
The high school students had created these flowers in the experimental ecology course Lets BEE Scientists, with Living Learning, Blue Mountains.
Amelie Vanderstock, PhD researcher at the University of Sydney and co-facilitator of the course, said it was great to share knowledge.
“Lets BEE Scientists is about sharing knowledge and experience of our local pollinators, and creating authentic opportunities to be the creative scientists that we all are. Today demonstrated that when we celebrate our passions and skills, people of all ages can come together and DO science. We are all scientists,” she said.
The young scientists observed several bee species and other insects on the artificial flowers and the surrounding garden flora. “Using artificial flowers in this way has had limited success in field research studies. These citizen scientists have demonstrated that this method is possible,” Ms Vanderstock said.