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By Lisa Moore
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
The Wellesley Free Library hosted Botanist Claire Hopkins on Thursday afternoon, September 29, as she presented “Playing With Pollinators” a program for kids ages 6-10 years old to learn about the importance of bees and other animals as pollinators. Ms. Hopkins, a botanist with a science education background, is passionate about getting kids interested in and passionate about nature and plants. In addition to live programs, she has a website called www.Brilliantbotany.com where she posts content, videos, and blogs about nature, such as “Strange Pollinators”, “Three Pounds of Honey Bees” and “How a Bee Becomes a Queen.”
“Kids are fun to teach because everything is new and exciting for them,” she said.
At the library event, she brought in several samples of preserved bees for the children to observe, along with pollen collected by beekeepers. “There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world, and scientists are still discovering new species every day,” said Hopkins. With the help of a young volunteer, she demonstrated the parts of a bee and discussed how the bee uses them. The young science enthusiasts seemed to know a lot about bees, identifying the antennae used for touch and smell, and the five eyes that help bees see so well.
When asked why the bees are typically yellow and black, one child responded “To warn predators to stay away; they have stingers,” to which Ms. Hopkins explained that honeybees have barbed stingers, when they sting they lose their stinger and die, while other bees do not have barbed stingers and can sting in defense multiple times.
While the focus of the presentation was bees as pollinators, Ms. Hopkins talked about other important animal pollinators like slugs, bats, mammals, and birds. She talked about how different plants attract pollinators, like being brightly colored, having nectar, and smelling yummy to a pollinator. The children then picked their favorite pollinator and designed a flower that would attract that pollinator, providing a fun interactive craft for the children to take home.
