The Mystery of Pollination:
The Curious Case of How Flowers Become Food

We are a non-profit organization with a mission to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards while protecting our planet’s precious pollinators.  We offer grants and programs to schools and libraries across the country to support pollinator education in the classroom including STEAM curriculum and beekeeping resources. Learn more by watching Meet The Bee Cause Project. 

You already are!  Your participation in The Bee Cause programming through lesson plans and pollinator activities brings awareness to the plight of pollinators.  Use The Bee Cause resources to help you find the best way to introduce your classroom to the wonderful world of pollinators.

We recommend working with your administration and staff to form a Pollinator Team. Work as a team to decide how you will utilize the resources in the kit based on your unique needs. Hosting a Bee A Friend to Pollinator Event at your library is as easy as providing a read-aloud opportunity with one of our Book Club Challenge activities, assessing your campus with the lesson plan provided, and establishing your new pollinator-friendly grow bag.  

Protecting our planet’s most precious pollinators should be everyone’s top priority. Bees are responsible for pollinating 70% of the top 100 food crops worldwide, that is one in every three bites of food on our plates. These hardworking insects also pollinate a wide variety of plants that provide food for other animals, and in the case of honey bees, produce wax, honey, and propolis. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, flies, moths, and many other pollinators are also vital to our ecosystem providing food resources for other animals. Check out this resource – The Critical Importance of Pollinators.

Great question! The Bee A Friend To Pollinators Lesson will help your Pollinator Team and your Event Guests determine your friendliness based on how many pollinating insects you find. And we’ve got easy suggestions on how to be more friendly as a result of this program.

Seed balls are a sustainable method to cultivate plants in a way that provides a larger window of time for sowing to occur.  Seed balls, also known as earth balls or nendo dango, consist of a variety of different seeds rolled within a ball of clay and compost which is dried before dispersal.  Nendo Dango is a planting technique created by the agriculturist and microbiologist Masanobu Fukuoka during the 194os to replant large areas of forests.  Seed balls are an activity that is perfect for families and classrooms.  Seed balls create a beautiful pollinator habitat that supports pollinators in your community.  To learn more go to Gardening with Wildflower Seed balls.

To make them easier to sow!!  Essentially, a seed ball is a mass of pre-planted seeds.  This means that the seed begins its lifecycle as soon as it meets moist soil or matrix material.  The seeds do not sprout right away if you dry the seed ball out first.  Once they are spread or sowed in your neighborhood they have a higher chance of survival.  Did you know that seeds only need one single burst of light to start their life?  This is why we keep them in paper packets and in cool, dry places.

Seed balls kits are available at Seed-Balls.com and even on Amazon.  Although seeds come with the kit, you will most likely need additional seed packets.  It would be best to purchase seeds native to your region to ensure that you can promote local pollinators by planting native species.

Native bees are fascinating and unique to each region of the country. We suggest researching what kinds of native bees live in your area. Students can get involved too. We recommend Kiddle.co for kid-friendly research. Check out these videos for more information –  Mason Bees Are A Gardener’s Best Friend and Native Bee Diversity in North America.

We recommend using this Ecoregional Planting Guide to learn more about what works in your area. Then talk to your local plant nursery to find out more about year-round blooms and proper soil use.