JULY 15, 1916 



595 



One of the elasscs iu zoology at the Geimantown High School, 

 gained of one of the most reiiiarkahle phases of insect life." 



A a intimate knowledge has been 



BEES FOR HIGH- SCHOOL STUDENTS 



BY ADELENE H. JACOBS 



Tliat beekeeping cau be incorporated in a 

 course in elementary zoology has been dem- 

 onstrated at the Germantown High School 

 for girls in Philadelphia. It was a notable 

 day in September, 19] 5, when a colony of 

 Italian bees was housed in a double-walled 

 hive on the lawn outside the zoological lab- 

 oratory. Remarkably fearless, the students 

 gathered around the hive and received their 

 first instructions in the life-history and ac- 

 tivities of the bee. 



Instead of reading about Apis mellifiea 

 and looking at museum specimens of queens, 

 drones, and workers, our pupils in groups 

 of ten, protected by veils of their own 

 making, began their study of insects at the 

 buzzing hive. Here we watched the forag- 

 ers returning with their balls of golden 

 pollen ; learned to distinguish the kinds of 

 bees on a crowded brood-frame ; became fa- 



miliar with the cells used for storing pollen 

 and honey, or in which were developing the 

 whitish wormlike drones and workers, and 

 obsen'ed the attendants cleaning a bee that 

 had been spattered with honey. These and 

 many other things we learned at first hand 

 with keen interest and enthusiasm. In addi- 

 tion we found that biological problems of 

 an abstract nature became more real and 

 sigTiifieant. Adaptation of structui-e to 

 function ; relationship between environment 

 and individual development; instinct vs. 

 intelligence; division of labor and commu- 

 nal life — all tliese topics were vitalized, and 

 had practical meaning when interpreted 

 thru our own colony of bees. 



The pupils showed a sustained interest in 

 the bees, even during the winter. They re- 

 ported to us, now and again, that the bees 

 were flying " at recess time " when an occa- 



