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Maths inside bees and beehives

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Drawing of two bees, one with tiny computer chip on its back
Maths inside bees and beehives

SUBJECTS:  Maths

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


Bees are necessary for assisting many plants to produce the food we eat, including meat and milk.

Colony collapse disorder, which describes the disappearance of beehives, could have catastrophic effects on food production.

Australian scientists are applying their maths and science knowledge to build up a picture of a healthy hive in order to help solve this problem.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Beehives are bee houses. What might bees need to consider when making a 'good' beehive? Share your ideas. Why do you think bees make their hives using regular shapes?
  2. 2.It is important to have a good understanding of bees and beehives if scientists are to solve the problem of colony collapse disorder. What do you know of beehives? You should notice that there is no wasted space in any of the beehives. Why do you think this is?
  3. 3.Construct a beehive using three different regular polygonal prisms from cardboard and joining them to make three different types of beehives. Use this activity sheet as a guide. Test the hives for strength and stability. Compare the capacities of the different prisms. Can you come up with appropriate formulas for perimeter, area and volume of the beehives? If you're stuck, here are the answers. Why do you think bees make their hives from hexagon shapes?
  4. 4.How much honey could fit into each cell of each type of hive? How would you find out?


Acknowledgements

Video © UTS Maths Inside.


Production Date: 2017


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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