Pollination Sustainability. This is my main idea for this project.
In 8th grade, my project on the sustainability of pollination won first place in my school’s science fair. In my neighborhood, The Haight, there is a local beekeeper that keeps bees on the unused roofs of many apartment buildings. To complete my research project on how pollination can affect the global climate state, I myself went and did beekeeping on the roofs of an apartment building right across the street from me, as well as a few others.
My conclusion was that, yes, pollination, especially with bees, is sustainable. Honey is an extremely interesting substance, and natural pollination grows most of our plants. However, pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, have been disappearing due to human activity. Not only did this project do well, it was also incredibly fun and interesting to look into. I truly do think that, after doing my project, pollination could bring upon a change in our world.
My thought for this year was that, perhaps, I could expand on last year’s project. I could connect to more beekeeping and gardening foundations and learn more on how this subject could improve our world. The San Francisco Botanical Gardens are already a location that I have thought of doing this research in. I have two main paths that I believe I could follow for this project.
One path would be to make more areas that nurture bees, which could include certain colors, sounds, and smells that allow bees to expand to pollinate far and wide. Another idea I had in mind would be to find a way to make bee-friendly pesticides. Pesticides are used on most farms, and although there are “bee-friendly” pesticides, they are either too expensive or too inefficient or ineffective to use on a large scale.
My current course of action is putting more research into the prior path that I mentioned. Thank you for listening to my proposition!
Montserrat Batchelli-Hennessey
Class of 2029
I2 Climate Change project