NOVA | PBS Tales of the Hive

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Gina Strandlien helps her students explore tessellation patterns in beehives.

What do a biological cell and a bee colony have in common? More than you might think. Both are examples of autopoietic systems, self-organizing structures in which the parts interact with each other in a way that continually maintains each part and the relationships among them.

And as Gina Strandlien's fifth grade students found out, with the help of NOVA Web features, this theory about the dynamics of living systems is one way to look at the organization and structure of some biological systems.

Ecosystems are one of four main units in the 5th grade science curriculum at Granite Quarry Elementary School in Granite Quarry, North Carolina. Strandlien, who teaches both science and math, focused the unit on the diversity of living things and their inter-relatedness with each other and with their physical environment.

Strandlien's students first studied the prairie ecosystem. Using this system as a model, they learned basic definitions of an ecosystem, how energy flows through an ecosystem through food chains and food webs, how organisms compete and survive, and how the structure of an ecosystem affects the role(s) of individual organisms within it.

Before moving onto study a second ecosystem, Strandlien included a transition and enrichment activity where students could apply their emerging knowledge. Students were given a worksheet to explore the Dances with Bees interactive from NOVA's "Tales from the Hive" Web site. The social structure of bees and the physical structure of the hive were used as an example of one autopoietic system.

As students looked at the hexagonal structure and construction of the beehive in the NOVA Web feature Anatomy of a Hive they discussed whether this shape would help the bees to compete and survive in their environment. Drawing from their knowledge about tessellations, students concluded that the hexagonal structure ensures that there are not any gaps or overlaps and that this would be an efficient use of resources. This led students to also consider the impact tessellate systems might have on a system's effectiveness in competition and survival. Strandlien noted that seeing mathematical concepts played out in the natural world helps bring meaning to students' study of math.

Following the exploration of Dances with Bees, students turned to the second ecosystem—the rainforest. At the end of the unit, Strandlien asked students to draw on any of the resources they used during the unit to complete a final project about the concept of autopoiesis. Students were asked to integrate both math and science concepts into their final project. Using a laptop cart from the school, students returned to the Web-based resources in small groups. Strandlien says that many groups found inspiration in the NOVA Web features and created drawings or used other materials such as manipulatives to create representations that highlighted the tessellating pattern of the beehive.

Strandlien, who made a mid-career change to teaching from sales and marketing, has been an educator for seven years. She says the Anatomy of a Hive feature really helped students to make connections between math and science concepts. "You could see it in their questions," she notes, "as they considered how the design of a beehive helped bees to efficiently use resources and survive in their ecosystem."

For more information, Strandlien can be contacted at:

gstrandlien@gmail.com

The world of science is exciting! The world of math will blow your mind too. Just the number pi could be for you, and has been for others, a lifelong fascination. This article described one of the ways that educators can connect multiple disciplines in the study of one area of focus. In this case, it was bees, the individual bee, the social network of the hive and how it works, the architecture of the tessellating individual chambers, the mathematical beauty of the system.

At the time that I did this, it was a new way of thinking, but today it may seem ancient. The point is, each day brings a new opportunity to try something new and different in your approach to the tasks at hand. Help someone else to see things in a new way. It's a lot of fun. Here is the Pi Song.