6 children from Greenwood high international school - Akshay, Sahana, Rachita, Ratan, Aditya Vasisht and Aditya U are participating in an international competition conducted by First Lego League USA. Every year they are involved in a project which is based on real life problems. They are required to research a topic, present their findings to a larger public and also come up with solutions and implement them. This year their project is titled as Animal allies- how are animals our friends and how are we dependent on them.
They have chosen bees as their topic of research. Their research lead them to understanding how bees are the world's greatest pollinators and how several industries are dependent on bee pollination- examples are the oil seed industry, cotton industry, diary industry, agricultural industry, cosmetic industry etc. They have come to understand how several kinds of vegetables and fruits will be deprived of pollination if bees becomes extinct. They have extensively researched on the causes for colony collapse disorder and have had discussions as to how to increase bee population.
They have visited back yard bee keepers,as well as an apiary which has triggered in them a respect and love for these creatures. They even got to handle bee frames (during their apiary visit) filled with bees without even wearing gloves!
The children as part of spreading the message, want to educate people that bees are not pests but are our winged friends without whom life on earth will surely be affected. They have conducted a campaign called as "Save the bees else cease to be". They distributed pamphlets and explained to several people during their campaign about the importance of bees and how it is important to take several measures to save them.
Many apartment dwellers were curious to know about back yard bee keeping as well as safe ways to remove bee hives. The children patiently addressed their queries and at the end of their campaign have raised enough money to buy a bee box. The proceeds will go to Hive trust and in association with them, they want to pass the message forward.
They will educate and adopt one farm/ orchard grower at a time and enable them to practice back yard bee keeping. This will slowly but surely spread awareness, enable an increase in agricultural yield as well as an increase in the bee population. They strongly believe that strict laws have to be enforced to protect the bees.
They will also write a petition to end use of certain fumigators used to smoke out bee hives and also to end use of certain pesticides and insecticides which are the leading causes of colony collapse disorder. Every step they believe will make a difference to the bees and to our own lives in this planet.
They have collected funds to donate 'The Hive Trust' by selling these beautiful handmade cakes of honey bee theme along with Honey harvested by beekeepers in humane way.
