Our collaborators at the Penn State Center for Pollinator Research, Christina Grozinger and Harland Patch, are partnering with Discovery Space to develop and expand a new exhibit to educate young children (ages 3 to 6ish) about honey bees. Discovery Space welcomes 20,000 visitors per year. The new Hive exhibit allows children to act out the social lives of bees. Children can wear a bee costume, buzz over to larger-than-life flowers to collect pollen and nectar, take the nectar into the hive and do the waggle dance. This interactive exhibit sparks conversations between parents and their children about bees, how bees interact with flowers, why bees need flowers, and the role honey bees play in making honey.
The Hive exhibit is supported by funding from the Centre Foundation, NSF, and USDA–NIFA–SCRI.