ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

ESTE Assessment 3: Design Brief

Topic:

Habitats of Honeybees in Australia and their importance in maintaining a healthy

environment.

Curriculum Link:

Year 4 - Students broaden their understanding that living things form part of the

systems of earth.

SCIENCE

Strand: Science Understanding

Sub strand: Biological Sciences

Content Descriptors:

- Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)

o Making and recording observations of living things as they develop

through their life cycles

o Describing the stages of life cycles of different living things such as

insects, birds, frogs, and flowering plants

o Comparing life cycles of animals and plants

o Recognising that environmental factors can affect life cycles such as

fire and seed germination.

- Living things depend on each other and the environment to survive

(ACSSU073)

o Recognising that interactions between living things may be competitive

or mutually beneficial.

o Investigating how plants provide shelter for animals

1
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

o Investigate the roles of living things in a habitat, producers, consumers,

decomposers

o Overserving and describing the effects when living things in feeding

relationships are removed or die out in an area.

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGIES

Strand: Knowledge and understanding

Sub strand: Technologies and society - materials and technologies specialisations

Content Descriptor:

- Suitability and safe practice when using materials, systems and components

for a range of purposes (ACTDEK013).

Sustainability Cross Curriculum Priority

The Australian Curriculum emphasises sustainability as a priority relevant to all

learning areas. It should be implemented across all aspects of teaching and learning

in the classroom to maximise students’ knowledge, skills, and values to allow them

to contribute to more sustainable patterns of living in society. Within the context of

Environmental Science Technology and Design, the cross-curriculum priority of

sustainability gives students opportunities to integrate their study of the earths

processes with investigating the influences of human management on the

environment. Specifically, technologies enable students to consider preferred futures

by identifying a problem, generating ideas, and creating solutions.

In the context of this Design Brief ‘Where Would We Bee’ Without Bees’, students

learn of the importance in maintaining sustainability of the environment, and the role

bees have in this. Students are also exposed to the problem of the decline in

2
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

population of the bees in Australia as a result of the lack of suitable living areas. This

relates to the organising idea 2, ‘all life forms, including human life, are connected

through ecosystems on which they depend for their wellbeing and survival.’

They are then directed to plan for and design a means to solving the problem.

Students will have the opportunity to research into the topic and observe their school

grounds for areas which would be suited for bees to live and reproduce, pollinating

the areas around environment. In the featured lesson plan students create a visual

representation of their solution in the form of a diorama and present this to their

peers for feedback. The lesson plan narrows in on the generating designs of the

overall project, where students individually create a diorama and implement their

findings to provide a real-life example. This project links to the sustainable

development goal 15: sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and

reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity.

3
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

Lesson Sequence

Lesson One “Beeing Curious” – Provide students with a copy of the design brief

for this term’s unit on Bees and the importance of Bees. During the first lesson

students will distinguish between the main types of Bees in Australia. Honeybees,

bumblebee, European honeybee by conducting a research task using the site,

BrainPop jr. Students must answer the following questions.

a) What are the different types of bees in Australia?

b) Which is the most common bee?

c) Are any of these bees not native to Australia (have the been introduced from

another country)? If so, which bee types are not native to Australia?

Lesson Two “Investigating Honeybees” – The focus for the rest of this sequence

of lessons will be about honeybees. Students will create a facts sheet about

honeybees based on the research conducted in the previous lesson. Some

stimulating questions to be used in the lesson include:

- Where do honeybees live?

- What are the different roles of the honeybees living in the hive?

- What is the role of the queen in a hive?

- What happens if the queen dies?

- What food product do honeybees provide for people?

- Do honeybees die when they sting an enemy?

Lesson Three “Beeing Helpful” - Honeybees need a lot of water especially in the

summer. They use the water to cool inside the hive, to prevent wax honeycomb from

melting. Bees cannot fly if they get their wings wet so getting water can be a

4
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

dangerous activity. Can you design a safe place for honeybees to gather water to

add to your garden? Consider what will make your area easily accessible for the

bees. Can they fly in and out without getting their wings wet? How do plants provide

shelter for honeybees? Students sketch what a safe living environment might look

like for honeybees in their design and technology books.

Lesson Four “Observing the School Grounds” – Now the students know a bit

more about honeybees is it time to consider how bee friendly the school grounds

are. Students will decide on which areas of the school grounds are more bee

friendly. An observation template should be provided to each student where they will

investigate an area in the school where they believe a bee would be most likely to

live and survive. The observation template requires students to write the location

name as well as features and description of the location. They then will draw the

area and annotate it. Students must move as a whole class through the school to

maintain supervision of all students.

Lesson Six and Seven “Creating a Diorama” (PROJECT CREATING)– After

drawing a design of a beehive students should have a realistic idea of what an ideal

habitat for the honeybee looks like. Individually students will create a 3D diorama

that represents this. The goal is to create the safest beehive for honeybees to live

and produce honey.

Lesson Eight “Selling your Diorama to Save the Bees Australia” – For this final

lesson the class will be divided into two halves. Students from each half will take

turns presenting their diorama to their group of peers, pretending the group is

5
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

members from the ‘Save the Bees Australia’ cooperation. Students will need to focus

on the features of their bee safe habitat and give reasons as to why it would be

beneficial for the survival of the bees. Students will only be given 2 minutes to

present their creation. Once this is complete students return to their desks and swap

dioramas with their partner, they must then fill out a ‘two stars and a wish’ form to

provide feedback.

6
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

Year Four Design Brief “Where Would We Bee Without Bees?” – Teacher
Centred

Title Where would we Bee without Bees?

Introduction Introduce the importance of bees to students, specifically focus on
honeybees in Australia.
Brief Students must research the ideal habitat of the Honeybee and
design a habitat in the format of a diorama where bees would be
most likely to survive in an Australian setting.
Generating Students take a walk around the school and look at the different
Designs things that a honeybee might like to have where they live.
From the information gathered they must draw a quick annotated
sketch of how they will create their diorama. Once this is complete
students can being creating their diorama of an ideal habitat for a
honeybee to live and survive.
Project Students will need the following:
Specifications - A shoe box, coloured paper and/or card, textas, pencils
and/or markers, glue, scissors
Alternative options include:
- Cellophane, crape paper, pipe cleaners, pompoms, milk
caps, cotton balls
To ensure the safety of all students, the teacher must not allow
any students to use a hot glue gun. If parent helpers are available
for the creating lessons (lesson six and seven) they can manage
the hot glue gun station and students can request to have things
glued.
Project Students will have an entire term to work on this project following a
Management structured sequence of lessons. Students will have five lessons to
research, observe and investigate, followed by two whole lessons
to create their dioramas. The project links to the sustainability goal
number 15.
Presentation During the final lesson students will have an opportunity to ‘sell’
their dioramas to their peers and explain the features. Students
can pretend their audience are members from the ‘Save the Bees
Australia” cooperation.
Evaluation During the same final lesson, students return to their desks and
swap diorama with their partner. Students will complete a ‘two
stars and a wish’ form and return this to provide feedback to their
peers.
Time Students will have eight sequential lessons to complete this entire
project.

7
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

Design Brief “Where Would We Bee Without Bees?” – Student Centred

Where Would We Bee Without Bees?

Introduction Did you know there are many different types of Bees living in
(what is this Australia!? Bees play a big role in pollination of flowering plants.
task all Honeybees are a very special type of Bee as they create the
about?) delicious, sweet honey that we buy from the shops and enjoy
eating. We will be investigating the world of bees in Australia and
learn how important they are in maintaining our environment.
Brief (what The honeybees need your help! With the environment constantly
will I be changing they are struggling to find safe places to build a hive.
creating?) Among other things bees need water to maintain their hive and
keep it cool. However, getting water is a very dangerous activity
for honeybees because if they get their wings wet, they cannot fly.
You have been invited by ‘Save the Bees Australia’ ‘to design an
ideal natural habitat for honeybees to live and thrive. Your
challenge is to design a safe place where they can build a hive
and gather water safely without getting their wings wet. You will
need to research the ideal habitat of a honeybee and recording
important points in your science books. Once you know exactly
what honeybees need you can design a safe habitat where
honeybees can source water and pollen and create a realistic
representation of this in the form of a diorama.
Generating Before you begin creating you will need to learn what honeybees
Designs need to live healthy, safe lives. As you know, honeybees live in
(what do I hives, but these hives are only made in places chosen carefully by
need to do the queen bee, followed by her worker bees. Using books,
before I begin magazines, and online researching investigate the ideal habitat of
creating?) a honeybee.
You may also like to take a walk around the school and look at the
different things that a honeybee might like to have where they live.
Don’t forget to take a pencil and piece of paper to record what you
find! (You will be given a whole lesson to complete this under the
supervision of your teacher).
From the information you have gathered, draw a quick sketch in
your design and technology books of what you would like your
diorama to look like.
Once this is complete you can create your diorama of an ideal
habitat for a honeybee to live and survive.

8
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

Project To create your diorama, you will need the following:

Specifications - A shoe box
(what do I - Coloured paper and/or card
need?) - Textas, pencils and/or markers
- Glue
- Scissors
To make your beehive more exciting you could also use:
- Cellophane
- Crape paper
- Pipe cleaners
- Pompoms
- Milk caps
- Cotton balls
You can see the teacher if you need to use the hot glue gun to
secure something heavy in your diorama.
Project You will have an entire term to work on this project following
Management lessons provided by your teacher. You will have five lessons to
research, observe and investigate, followed by two whole lessons
to create your dioramas. Once you have completed your diorama,
the final lesson you will have an opportunity to ‘sell’ your diorama
to your peers and explain the features you have included.
Presentation Once you have completed your dioramas you will have an
(time to show opportunity to ‘sell’ it to a group in your class. You can pretend that
my peers!) you peers are members from the ‘Save the Bees Australia’
cooperation. You will need to give reasons as to why you have put
certain things in your diorama and explain how it will be beneficial
to the survival of the honeybees.
Evaluation After you have presented your diorama to a group of your peers,
(how can I do make your way back to your desk and swap your diorama with the
better?) person sitting across from you. Take a look at it, what can you
see? Your task is to provide feedback to this person, writing two
stars and a wish. Two stars are where you will point out something
that you think is great about their diorama, are there plenty of
trees, is there water available for the bees, can you see any other
animals in the diorama. When writing a wish, you must find a way
where that diorama could be better. Once you have done this give
the diorama back and explain reasons behind what you have
written.
Time (how Your entire project will go for eight sequential lessons, stretching
long will I over an entire terms work for this subject.
have?)

9
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2019). Sustainability.

Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-

curriculum-priorities/sustainability/

Hathway, J., Fifield, M., & Callum, B. (2016). Stage 3 Science and Technology

Competition: Teachers handbook and learning sequence. Retrieved from

https://www.tocal.nsw.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/797514/teacher-

handbook-and-learning-sequence.pdf

Save the Bees Australia. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.tocal.nsw.edu.au

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2019). Technologies. Retrieved from

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-

browser/technologies

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2019). Design and Technologies.

Retrieved from https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-

browser/technologies/design-and-technologies2

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2019). Science v8.1. Retrieved from

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-browser/science-v8

Stuart, D. (2016). Agrifood Skills Australia: Where would we Bee without them?

Retrieved from

10
ESTE Design Brief Project & Lesson Planning Kaliya Tribbeck 32003410

https://www.primezone.edu.au/uploaded_files/resource_uploads/import/Teach

ersGuide_Bees.pdf

11