The Hun School of Princeton – an all-gender private day and boarding school – announced that through NextTerm – which is a three-week mini-semester designed to offer Hun students an experiential and interdisciplinary academic experience with real-world implications. The Hun students are exploring how the honey bee is deeply connected to human culture and how humans can work to preserve its existence.
To the general population, the sight or sound of a bee usually sends them into a state of fear. To Hun students of the course “The 3 B’s: The Beauty, Biology, and Business of Bees,” bees are far from dangerous and they are a sign of successful agriculture along with being key players in the world’s beauty industry and a business opportunity.
Every year, the population of Earth’s pollinators decreases dramatically, which puts both global and local businesses at risk. Through this course, students learn to be responsible honey bee advocates and do their part to spread the word about how honey bees are vital to a flourishing planet.
For 3 weeks this past May, the students worked closely with Mill Creek Apiary hosted on Princeton Lavender Farm, Jean Miller, Cornell University Master Beekeeper, and Howell Living History Farm. Students had firsthand experience keeping a hive, extracting honey, and learning about the different roles and responsibilities bees have. After getting up close and personal with honey bees, a student in the class decided he was ready to take matters into his own hands. Hayden G. ’25 built 2 personal hives at home and is currently researching and planning for his two queen bees to arrive next week.
KEY QUOTES:
“Being able to see all of the things we learned about in real life made everything we learned so much more real. It’s a whole different experience to stand in the hive with the bees you’ve been studying for so long flying around you.”
— Phoebe M. ’23 – who believes that nothing beats the experience of actually going into the hive
“Bees are so important, they are complex, and they provide for us. When we went to Mill Creek Apiary and we watched a bee hatching from a cell, I thought it was so cool because I already knew beforehand what the bee would do next: start to clean the cell. Researching bees and observing them has been really interesting.”
— Colin H. ’ 24 – who has found a deep appreciation for the honey bee through this course
“Bees do more than imaginable things for all of us and the world around them. You can learn a lot from bees just by listening to them. With a little bit of education and some positive experience with them, I think people would be so much more aware of their impact and maybe even start a hive of their own.”
— Sophia B. ’23 – who hopes that people learn to appreciate that bees are both friendly and smart creatures
