1. Are humans to blame for the decline in bees?
Get students to line up at the side of the classroom on an opinion line. This is a scale so they may be somewhere in the middle, take the opportunity to probe their opinions and tell them that you will do this at the end also. Conversely you may fold this line and get them to take 20 seconds to each explain to someone of a different opinion.
Get students to collect an A3 copy of slide 3 and log on to a computer.

2. Learning objectives
Changes in the environment affect the distribution of living organisms.
Animals and plants are subjected to environmental changes. Such changes may be caused by living or non-living factors such as a change in a competitor, or in the average temperature or rainfall.

3. Case study: A big question....
‘Are humans to blame for bees dying out?’
Point 1 P E
Yes, humans are to blame
evaluated and critically compared
Overall, I feel that humans are/ are not to blame because...
Point 2 P E
Point 3 P E
Point 1 P E
No, humans are not to blame
Students will be told that they need to collect information from around the room that will help them make a more informed opinion. They will need to do this in the form of a pee paragraph (point evidence explain). There is a practice on the next slide for them to do.
Point 2 P E
Point 3 P E

4. In some areas, flowering plants are flowering earlier so there are big gaps between flowers that would normally flower one after the other. This prevents the bees from having a constant source of food.
P= bees find it difficult to find food
E= there are gaps between flowers
E= this means that bees can starve at certain times of the year.

5. Are humans to blame for bees dying?
There is information around the room. You have 4mins to read the posters and note down anything you think might help you to answer the main question.
You may not have enough time to look at all the information, make sure that each half gets information from different sides of the room.
You will then have 2 minutes to share all the information in your groups.
You can change the timings and its optional to get them to share information. This really depends on the class, more able give them the prescribed amount, less able, just give them 6 minutes to move around the room to get info for themselves.
Sheets to go around the room are at the end of the powerpoint.

6. Can we categorise the arguments?
Living = *
Non living = •
Not sure = ?
As part of the lesson objectives they need to be aware of the non living and living influences on a species’ distribution.

7. Is this enough? Why should we bother doing extra research?
Can we answer the question confidently yet?
You will need to research 1 area in more detail from the information that you already have to get a better understanding of the issue.
Students only have a limited amount of information from what they have so far. They need to decide which area they wish to find out more about and think of what keywords they could use in google to find the information.
For Varroa mite: ‘varroa mite bee decline’
For hot april: ‘bee decline hot weather’

8. I think that humans are/are not to blame for bees dying because
I think that humans are/are not to blame for bees dying because..... (Explain your arguments giving as much detail and facts as you can)
Another conclusion that could be made by someone else such as...(conservationist/child/someone who lost a relative to a wild animal/someone believes animals should stay in the wild). They believe that...
This is because...

9. In some areas, flowering plants are flowering earlier so there are big gaps between flowers that would normally flower one after the other. This prevents the bees from having a constant source of food.

10. Many farmers still use pesticides on their crops
Many farmers still use pesticides on their crops. In order to get more food. Pesticides kill most insects including bees. This reduces the amount of habitat that bees can use.

11. Varroa mites are becoming increasingly common in the UK and much of the world. They are parasites and feed on the bees themselves. This severely weakens individuals and the hive often spreading killing individuals slowly over several weeks.

12. With many gardeners choosing have decking in their garden, the amount of plants in the garden is decreasing.
Lots of new houses are being built all the time and this decreases the amount of land available for flowering plants

13. The BBC reported that 2011 had the warmest April on record with a very low rainfall. Without rain, plants cannot grow quickly and make nectar during flowering.

14. In the 1930s, the amount of beekeepers in the UK was 3 times more than it is today. Also, with fewer trees as suitable nest sites, bees have no where to live.