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The experts in native bee education in schools
Educating kids in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Northern NSW, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle since 2013
Educating kids in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Northern NSW, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle since 2013
Our workshops for schools
We run fun, interactive and educational native bee workshops for kindergarten / preschool, primary and high school classes. All workshops are taught by Dr Toby Smith, a professional bee scientist and educator. Our workshops are age-appropriately tailored to the class, and are structured around the main aim of conveying an understanding of bee diversity, bee lifecycles, and the role of bees in pollination and food security. Workshops are tailored to your needs and usually include fun and engaging presentations of dozens of brilliant close up photos and diagrams of bees, installations of live native stingless bee hives, live displays of stingless bee keeping, honey harvesting from stingless bee hives, and more. Throughout all our sessions students are encouraged to ask questions, and all the way through the presentations are completely interactive. Contact us for an information package today.
Testimonials
"Toby captured and maintained the interest of all participants throughout his presentation. Toby has the happy knack of reading his audience perfectly and pitching his delivery to reach all participants. He generously shares his expert knowledge and passion for bees with infectious enthusiasm."
Annette Keogh
Queensland Children's Hospital School, Brisbane
"Toby's recent visit was wonderful! Toby was so respectful the way he listened and engaged with the children. We learnt so much from him! Today the children voted on the name for the queen of their new stingless bee hive. Their favourite name.... Queen Super Hero! Queen Molly was the next most popular, so we have decided that it will be Princess Molly, next in line to the throne."
Natalie Collins
Mott Park Kindy, Brisbane
"We can’t thank Toby enough for today - he was incredible! Toby's passion is inspirational and he is an extremely effective communicator. The students were very engaged with Toby, more than I’ve seen them be with guest speakers before. It was excellent and lots of people have commented to me today about how awesome Toby's workshop was."
Kristie Schulz
High School Teacher, Parklands Christian College
"The kids had a great time and the educators were blown away with Toby's extensive bee expertise."
Elleanor Franke
Bardon School Aged Care
"Dear Toby, I just wanted to send you a quick email to thank you so much once again for an amazing experience with our little ones today. Your knowledge, patience and passion was infectious and the children haven’t stopped talking about the visit. As educators too, your willingness to teach us and help us move forward to strengthen our hive was greatly appreciated. We’d love to have you visit again in future years to continue educating our little learners about the importance of our buzzy native friends!"
Kelli-Anne Price
Pre-prep, Bauer Street Community Children's Centre
"Toby's visits with Bee Aware Kids to Yeronga Park Kindy have become a much anticipated annual occurrence. The children and also the staff gain valuable knowledge in the keeping of our native beehives and Toby's interactions with the children are engaging, fun, and interactive. The information shared about the importance of bees in our world is taken on board and shared with families well after the visit - even the art and stories the children tell have started to include bees and the foods they allow us to enjoy. We have fondly taken on Toby's "Tickle Bee" name for our native bees and we look forward to splitting our hives again to inspect them later this year."
Kelli Bridges
Yeronga Park Kindergarten
"Toby's bee program was absolutely perfect for Kindy children - he was interactive, funny, responsive, and caring. 'The bee man' made a big impression and was adored by all the kids. Toby's program is perfect for any unit about farming, science, animals, or Australia."
Carissa Klein
Hyde Road Kindergarten, Yeronga
"WOW the bee talk was great, Toby was so engaging and all the adults present found it fascinating too. We look forward to seeing him next year to follow up on our hives."
Carolyn Atkinson
St Thomas's Riverview Kindergarten, St Lucia
"We really enjoyed the bee talk and were impressed with Toby's ability to engage with our age group in a way they understood."
Lyn Jackson
Prince of Peace Lutheran Kindergarten, Everton Park
"After visiting our school a number of times, Toby's visits are now eagerly anticipated. Toby is always well prepared, uses hands-on materials that are highly interesting, and has a lovely manner with the students. Toby has shared a wealth of information about bees and the students always enjoy his sessions. His digital presentation is lots of fun too. I would highly recommend that your school invite Toby to present his valuable and informative lesson which both teachers and students will find enlightening and enjoyable."
Bridget Hudson
Queensland Children's Hospital School, Brisbane
Annette Keogh
Queensland Children's Hospital School, Brisbane
"Toby's recent visit was wonderful! Toby was so respectful the way he listened and engaged with the children. We learnt so much from him! Today the children voted on the name for the queen of their new stingless bee hive. Their favourite name.... Queen Super Hero! Queen Molly was the next most popular, so we have decided that it will be Princess Molly, next in line to the throne."
Natalie Collins
Mott Park Kindy, Brisbane
"We can’t thank Toby enough for today - he was incredible! Toby's passion is inspirational and he is an extremely effective communicator. The students were very engaged with Toby, more than I’ve seen them be with guest speakers before. It was excellent and lots of people have commented to me today about how awesome Toby's workshop was."
Kristie Schulz
High School Teacher, Parklands Christian College
"The kids had a great time and the educators were blown away with Toby's extensive bee expertise."
Elleanor Franke
Bardon School Aged Care
"Dear Toby, I just wanted to send you a quick email to thank you so much once again for an amazing experience with our little ones today. Your knowledge, patience and passion was infectious and the children haven’t stopped talking about the visit. As educators too, your willingness to teach us and help us move forward to strengthen our hive was greatly appreciated. We’d love to have you visit again in future years to continue educating our little learners about the importance of our buzzy native friends!"
Kelli-Anne Price
Pre-prep, Bauer Street Community Children's Centre
"Toby's visits with Bee Aware Kids to Yeronga Park Kindy have become a much anticipated annual occurrence. The children and also the staff gain valuable knowledge in the keeping of our native beehives and Toby's interactions with the children are engaging, fun, and interactive. The information shared about the importance of bees in our world is taken on board and shared with families well after the visit - even the art and stories the children tell have started to include bees and the foods they allow us to enjoy. We have fondly taken on Toby's "Tickle Bee" name for our native bees and we look forward to splitting our hives again to inspect them later this year."
Kelli Bridges
Yeronga Park Kindergarten
"Toby's bee program was absolutely perfect for Kindy children - he was interactive, funny, responsive, and caring. 'The bee man' made a big impression and was adored by all the kids. Toby's program is perfect for any unit about farming, science, animals, or Australia."
Carissa Klein
Hyde Road Kindergarten, Yeronga
"WOW the bee talk was great, Toby was so engaging and all the adults present found it fascinating too. We look forward to seeing him next year to follow up on our hives."
Carolyn Atkinson
St Thomas's Riverview Kindergarten, St Lucia
"We really enjoyed the bee talk and were impressed with Toby's ability to engage with our age group in a way they understood."
Lyn Jackson
Prince of Peace Lutheran Kindergarten, Everton Park
"After visiting our school a number of times, Toby's visits are now eagerly anticipated. Toby is always well prepared, uses hands-on materials that are highly interesting, and has a lovely manner with the students. Toby has shared a wealth of information about bees and the students always enjoy his sessions. His digital presentation is lots of fun too. I would highly recommend that your school invite Toby to present his valuable and informative lesson which both teachers and students will find enlightening and enjoyable."
Bridget Hudson
Queensland Children's Hospital School, Brisbane
We know bees
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Bee Aware Kids is owned and operated by Dr Tobias (Toby) Smith. Toby is a native bee researcher and commercial native bee keeper with a passion for community engagement and science communication. Since 2013 Toby has been running native bee workshops in schools, driven by a passion to promote an awareness of native bees, pollination, and the importance of biodiversity. Toby has extensive experience teaching children and adults of a range of ages, from Kindergarten to University and adult education. In addition to teaching children, Toby has 12 years of experience teaching University students. Toby's research background is in understanding native bee communities in agricultural landscapes, the use of native bees in crop pollination, and native bee biology and ecology. When not running bee workshops with kids, Toby's work time is divided among native bee keeping, teaching beekeeping to adults, university teaching, and bee and pollination research. Toby also runs a stingless bee business on the Coffs Coast, called Coffs Harbour Native Bees.
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We grow bees
We sell hives - At Bee Aware Kids we keep, propagate and sell hives of native stingless bees. They really are stingless, and are a safe and easy compliment to any school. We sell hives of stingless bees to schools, and these can be delivered and installed in conjunction with one of our native bee school workshops (we also offer workshops without the purchase of hives, and hives sales without workshops). Toby is an experienced stingless bee keeper, who in addition to educating children, also works as a commercial beekeeper and beekeeping workshop presenter. We sell hives of native stingless bees for $600. Our hives are made to the stingless bee industry standard honey OATH design, and are suitable for both future honey harvesting and hive split propagation. The hive boxes are professionally made, and the bee colonies inside are strong. In the unlikely event that the colony of bees you buy doesn't survive, we offer a 12 month guarantee. For more information about the hives that we sell, please contact us.
We service hives - In addition to presenting workshops at schools and selling native stingless bee hives, we also offer bee keeping services to schools who already have native stingless bee hives. We can visit your school and help split or harvest honey from your existing hive/s in front of the children, explaining and answering questions throughout. A common workshop style is an indoor interactive presentation leading up to an outdoor stingless bee hive split or honey extraction. We also offer services outside of schools.
We are urban bee farmers - We grow our bees in urban gardens around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and in town gardens in parts of northern NSW. It might seem strange, but recent research has demonstrated that hives of native stingless bees actually perform much better in urban gardens than in the bush or on farms. Why? Because in urban environments there are generally more regular, and more diverse, sources of food for stingless bees. Bees need flowers, and in our gardens we humans have actually done quite a good job of planting lots of different types of plants, with prolific flowering in mind, and we also water our gardens even in times of drought. Some beekeepers like to say that it is spring all year round in the suburbs. While not all native bee species will visit the flowers of common garden plants, stingless bees are generalists and will eat the pollen and nectar from a wide range of plant species.
We service hives - In addition to presenting workshops at schools and selling native stingless bee hives, we also offer bee keeping services to schools who already have native stingless bee hives. We can visit your school and help split or harvest honey from your existing hive/s in front of the children, explaining and answering questions throughout. A common workshop style is an indoor interactive presentation leading up to an outdoor stingless bee hive split or honey extraction. We also offer services outside of schools.
We are urban bee farmers - We grow our bees in urban gardens around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and in town gardens in parts of northern NSW. It might seem strange, but recent research has demonstrated that hives of native stingless bees actually perform much better in urban gardens than in the bush or on farms. Why? Because in urban environments there are generally more regular, and more diverse, sources of food for stingless bees. Bees need flowers, and in our gardens we humans have actually done quite a good job of planting lots of different types of plants, with prolific flowering in mind, and we also water our gardens even in times of drought. Some beekeepers like to say that it is spring all year round in the suburbs. While not all native bee species will visit the flowers of common garden plants, stingless bees are generalists and will eat the pollen and nectar from a wide range of plant species.
We want schools to plant native bee food
Bees need food, and that comes in the form of pollen (protein and fats) and nectar (sugars) from flowers. Bees fly to flowers to collect these substances to take home to their nests to feed their babies. Like humans, most bees need a diversity of foods to be healthy, so need to visit a range of different plant species to gather their food. Some native bees will collect pollen and nectar from non-native plants, but many native bees will only visit native plants. Planting more native plants in our landscapes will help native bees thrive. Imagine if all schools planted new bee food plants in their playgrounds, and if all households planted some in their gardens. Combined, these efforts would help to support native bees in the places we live and study. As an example, one single Eucalyptus tree will provide food for thousands of baby bees each and every year when it flowers. But it doesn't have to be a tree. Even small native shrubs, ground covers and vines provide food for native bees. Everything counts, so do your bit if you can.
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If you are in South East Queensland/ Northern NSW you can also download (free) a great gardening for native bees booklet published by City of Gold Coast Council, including native plant species lists, with bee content written by Toby. Download the booklet HERE. If you are outside of this area, take this plant species list to your local native nursery and ask them if they have some local equivalents. |
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Native bees in schools - Native bee education - Pollination education - Food production in schools - Food security - Lifecycles
Native bees for schools - School incursions - Native bee workshops for schools - Bee education - Scientist visit
Buy hives - Queensland - New South Wales
Brisbane - Gold Coast - Tweed Heads - Byron Bay - Coffs Harbour - Newcastle
Native bees for schools - School incursions - Native bee workshops for schools - Bee education - Scientist visit
Buy hives - Queensland - New South Wales
Brisbane - Gold Coast - Tweed Heads - Byron Bay - Coffs Harbour - Newcastle