Honey Bee

Team: 18

School: Aspen Elementary

Area of Science: Environmental

Interim: Problem Definition:
Honeybees all over the world are dying. The goal of this project is to find out what would happen if they died. We want to see how it affects us, what we eat, and other animals that depend upon them. A large fraction of world-wide crops are pollinated by honeybees. If honeybees go extinct then it may cause the loss of honey and many plants. These are approximately one third of the fruits and vegetables that we eat. If plants die animals die and etc.

Problem Solution:
We plan to simulate this project using Starlogo TNG. In our simulation the bees will act like they would in their natural habitat. Variables will be added that the bees will react to, such as plants, animals and diseases. One of the variables is the rate at which the bee population is decreasing. This will change the other animal and plant populations. When the honeybee population is reduced, some other insect populations, such as feral bees or native insects, may thrive, and these may continue pollinating in the honeybees’ place. Also, we’ll probably keep track of the population with graphs.

Progress to Date:
We have finished modeling our agents and their basic movements. Currently we are working on adding variables, such as the effect of the disease on the honeybee population, and we are adding graphs to track the population. We are also trying to figure out how to make the pesticides, pollution, and etc. work in our project (possibly by spreading diseases). So far we are doing reasonably well on our simulation.

Expected Results: We expect to see the animal and plant populations change according to the decreasing bee population. Of course, we are prepared to see the other animals learn to survive without the honeybees, due to other pollinating insect species. Hopefully, our simulation will go as planned.

Team Members:
Kaelan Prime
Kim Vo
Rowan Cantua

Sponsoring Teacher:
Zeynep Unal

References:
http://www.vegetus.honey/ecology.htm
www.google.com
Colony Collapse disorder-Wikipedia

Team Members:

  Kaelan Prime
  Kim Vo
  Rowan Cantua

Sponsoring Teacher: Zeynep Unal

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