Iowa Bee Colonies

The provided graphs show how Iowa’s bee colony population has been declining.

Possible Guiding, Compelling and/or Anchoring Questions

• What correlations can be made between the bee population in Iowa compared to those in the United States?
• What events could be directly affected by the bee population in Iowa?
• Do you predict that the bee colony populations would display the same general trend in all the midwestern states?
• What correlation can you make between the bee colony population in the United States to the trendline of the graphed data?
• Does environmental change over time affect the populations of animal species?

Classroom Suggestions

Have students:

• Investigate whether or not a correlation can be made between the environmental factors that have affected the bee colony populations in Iowa and the factors that have affected the whole United States.
• Make predictions after looking at this data. Have students conduct research to test their predictions.
• Discuss major changes that might have led to the decline in bee colony populations at specific timeline locations on the graph.

Related Resources

• Quartz: The number of managed bee colonies from 2006-2018.
• USDA: An analysis of honey bee populations in the United States and in individual states from 1969-2017.
• Scientific Beekeeping: Discusses what bee data means, how it can be affected, and why it shows the numbers and trends that it does.