Students make honeycombs for active beehive
STEM project helps hive at teacher’s home
Students in Alex Winschel’s honors biology class at Bethel Park High School recently designed and constructed honeycombs to be used in an actual beehive at Mr. Winschel’s home.
The students presented their findings in class on Nov. 21, and two groups will be selected by Mr. Winschel and entered into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) design competition sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh and the National Science Foundation early next year.
Last fall, Mr. Winschel completed a research experience for a teacher’s class at the University of Pittsburgh in which teachers were taught to immerse themselves in a design-oriented class that would help teach STEM projects to their students.
“I have a beehive in my backyard,” said Mr. Winschel, who lives in Brookline. He estimated that over the summer he had about 40,000 bees in his hive, but that number dwindles as the weather turns colder and the queen bees need to conserve as much energy and food as possible.
“The males get kicked out in the winter,” Mr. Winschel said with a laugh.
The queen bee does not lay eggs in the winter, so the drones have no use, and thus are “kicked out.”
For the project, students in groups of four designed honeycombs using CAD (computeraided design).
The honeycombs will then be printed on a 3D printer, and Mr. Winschel will put them to the test in his backyard hive.
By making the honeycombs, which take about a day to print, it will save the bees time since they won’t have to make them. It takes about eight days for bees to make a honeycomb.
“I think it really could work,” said sophomore Scott Orzechowski about their 3D printed honeycombs.
With the honeycombs already in the hive, sophomore Alex Carver said, the bees “will have more time to pollinate.”
“I had them learn about their role in the ecosystem,” Mr. Winschel said about what students
were taught during this project.
“I hope they just learn appreciation for bees,” he said, adding that at the start of the project, many students did not know the difference between a honeybee, a wasp and a yellow jacket.
“It helped teach them so they’re not afraid of bees,” Mr. Winschel said.
“I learned that honeybees don’t actually sting you,” Alex Carver said. He added he also learned that honeycombs are in the shape of a hexagon, which he had not previously known.
He also wants students to realize how important bees are to humans.
“Bees are the major pollinator,” he said, adding that about one-third of the food we eat is somehow connected to bees.
Additionally, the project focused on the plight of bees, including colony collapse disorder, when the majority of the drone bees suddenly leave and never return, leaving few bees to care for the young.
Early next year, Mr. Winschel will enter two groups into the competition at the University of Pittsburgh, with several other high school classes from the area.
The winning group will be announced in February and will win four laptops.
Mr. Winschel also plans to continue teaching his class about bees, with the next steps to learn about their genetic systems and their roles in photosynthesis.