Students investigate how garden design and human management decisions affect bees and biodiversity in New York City, then use that evidence to design and build a school garden apiary prototype. Through field studies in the school garden and a nearby community garden, specimen and anatomy study, and repeated data collection on pollinators, plants, and habitat features, they learn to ask testable questions, develop directional hypotheses, and carry out fair investigations. Over 30 weeks, they build a research portfolio with literature review, field notes, graphs, and revisions that supports a public design defense at the Hive and Thrive Showcase. The work connects life science, scientific research, and creative problem-solving to a real community need: creating an apiary and pollinator-friendly habitat that strengthens urban ecosystem biodiversity.

Students investigate bee anatomy, life cycles, caste roles, and sensory adaptations, and explain how these traits affect pollination and survival in urban environments. They develop and carry out a fair investigation in the school garden and a nearby community garden by posing a testable question, writing a directional hypothesis grounded in research, collecting repeated field data, and analyzing results with appropriate graphs and mathematical comparisons. Students evaluate how human garden management choices such as plant diversity, mowing, nesting habitat, and pesticide use influence pollinator biodiversity, then use evidence from credible sources and their own findings to justify apiary and garden design decisions. They communicate scientific thinking clearly through a cited literature review, research portfolio, design defense, critique of limitations, and a revised apiary prototype that supports bee health and urban ecosystem biodiversity.

Students will create a school garden apiary prototype with labeled hive features, selected pollinator-friendly plants, nesting supports, and management notes that they revise across the 30 weeks using feedback from portfolio check-ins and roundtable assessments. Throughout the project, they will build an interactive research portfolio that includes a literature review with citations, bee anatomy studies and models, field notes from the school and community gardens, data tables, graphs, and written justifications connecting evidence to design decisions. They will also produce a pollinator-friendly garden map and physical or digital model showing flower patches, mowing zones, nesting areas, and habitat improvements based on their investigation of biodiversity and pollinator activity. By the final showcase, each team will present a design defense that uses these products to explain how their apiary plan supports bee health and urban biodiversity.

Open with a “Hive Detectives” field experience in the school garden led by an urban beekeeper and a community garden partner, where teams rotate through stations with hive tools, preserved bee specimens, nesting materials, seed catalogs, and photo evidence from local gardens. Students use observation protocols to compare bee anatomy and traits, notice habitat features that may help or harm pollinators, and record initial patterns about plant diversity, mowing, pesticide use, and nesting sites. End with teams generating a compelling testable question and a directional hypothesis about what garden conditions best support bee health and biodiversity in the future school apiary. Each team posts its question, evidence, and first design ideas on a public gallery wall for peer critique and revision.

Host a Hive and Thrive Showcase in the school garden with interactive stations where students present their apiary prototypes, pollinator-friendly garden maps, and habitat models to families, peers, and community partners. At each station, students use their research portfolios, bee anatomy models, field notes, graphs, and cited sources to defend how their design choices support bee health and urban biodiversity. Invite the urban beekeeper, community garden coordinator, and horticulturist to question teams, give feedback, and help visitors evaluate proposals. Include a community voting element on the most effective apiary features and garden supports, and close with a student reflection wall highlighting how investigations, critique, and revision shaped the final designs.