Wonder a world full of honey

Are there curious nature explorers or fearless world wonders out there?!

Although the adage tells “curiosity killed the cat”, the truth is curiosity is an excellent engine towards exploration, discovery, learning, imagination, and almost endless possibilities if interesting and quality resources are available to support the process.

What are we talking about in this week’s tip? A funny and wonderful world of questions, answers and curiosities called Wonderopolis, that has been created by the National Centre for Families Learning (NCFL) to promote quality learning moments together. Have you ever wondered what is the sun’s temperature? What is the fire colour? How do astronauts drink water on the moon? How long does it take for plastic to decompose? How are gummy bears made? Who started NASA? Who invented time? Or even what happens to our body when we get scared?!

All these questions and many more are answered in Wonderopolis and are waiting to be explored by your family, or autonomously by any curious mind. The website provides multidisciplinary content organised by topics (e.g., science, mathematics, technology, arts …), facilitating research and exploration. The content is updated daily, with an intriguing new question and related answers being shared as a wonder each day. Any of us can be a wonder contributor generating those questions, that are answered through diverse supports: texts and videos that present facts, details and curiosities about the specific topic; photographs that illustrate it; activities and bibliography suggestions that will allow you deepen your perspectives about it; and wonder words that will guide you towards related topics, providing endless discoveries.

Are you curious enough to join us in a bee adventure?! We invite you to wonder a world full of honey curiosities in Wonderopolis. What do you already know about them? Why are they important to our planet? How do they produce honey? Are they dangerous for humans? Let’s find it out entering How do bees make honey? in Wonderopolis. Explore the available resources to answer that question and play the knowledge check-up test displayed at the right side of the screen. Then check the tag “words” at the top of the page and discover much more by clicking on “bee”. Go on exploring: How do bees do in winter? Why do bees sting? How many flowers can a bee pollinate? How do bees choose the next queen? What causes colony collapse disorder? Take advantage of this family learning moment and discover who knew the most about bees.

And now that you have visited their honey world, how would you tell it? Pollen, beehives, honeycombs… very yellow and black! Would you recreate it, challenging your motor skills and creativity? Go find some card boxes, bubble wrap, colouring materials… and start creating a card hive, a honeycomb with bubble wrap painted in yellow, or a beautiful queen bee. Do you have some honey pots or bee pollen to sweet this setting? Join them and get ready to become a journalist directly sent from a world full of honey wonders. Take advantage of that scenery to record your own presentation of the world of bees and share some of the curiosities that you discovered in Wonderopolis! Do not forget to mention some honey benefits for our health and bees’ contributions to our planet.

What if we join an even sweetest part to our tip and test our taste buds? How do you use honey in cooking? Who eats it with a spoon, with some pancakes, in a lemon tea or mixed with mustard in a chicken steak?! And have you ever tried the wonderful bee pollen in a beautiful fruit shake? What else do you have at home that contains honey? This might also be a good opportunity to jointly analyse the labels of the products you are going to use and discuss those that have greater and lesser nutritional value. We invite you to prepare a honey movie night, exploring some receipts with this sweet ingredient. Nothing better than doing it as a family, don’t you think?! So, when the meal is ready, it is time to sit down and watch Disney’s animated “Bee Movie”. Is the life of a bee really as we imagined it during the previous activities? Find it out, have fun, and earn your bee explorer badge.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful site with so many oddities! There is much more available, so join your family in this endless learning world. See you next week!

Contribution by:
Ana Mouta, Ana Paulino and Inês Sá Couto are Pedagogy Specialists at jp.ik.