This video is short and to the point. A high school student explains and demonstrates how to do the project.
The activity is easy to complete and will provide students with a tangible product they can use to help Mason Bees.
Additional Prerequisites
To construct a bee hotel, students will need a container (e.g., box, jar, can, mug), tube-shaped objects (e.g., bamboo shoots, rolled magazine pages, wide straws), and twine or string.
Teachers may want to provide students with art supplies to decorate their bee hotels.
For printable directions, click the link below the video.
Differentiation
Math classes could calculate the area and volume of their bee motels.
Social studies classes could use this project in a unit about supporting the local community.
Elementary language arts classes could watch this animated video of a wordless book on bees and then complete this project as a follow-up activity.
This activity would be an excellent station during a station rotation. Students could work on other bee-related work, read nonfiction texts on bees, and complete other activities at the other stations.
This activity could be used as a culminating project after studying bees.
Other related resources include this video about the importance of biodiversity, this activity that focuses on building a pollinator garden, and this article about plants and animals that are especially confused by climate change.