Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience includes students at KSU and those outside of KSU, particularly beekeepers and others with a particular interest in bees and pollination. Changes/Problems:There have not been any serious problems, although the work has been slowed somewhat by the lack of beekeeping help at KSU. The PI (Webster) has had to do nearly all of the beekeeping and hive manipulations for photos and videography. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has allowed the PI (Webster) to improve his oral presentation skills and his ability to teach and convey the information covered in this course. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The availability of this course has been communicated to students at KSU and to those outside of KSU, particularly beekeepers and others with a particular interest in bees and pollination.It has beenpublicized at the University and is routinely listed in the Course Catalog. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
(1) Material has been added every year: specifically, information pertaining apiculture, honey bee biology, and plant pollination, reading material, and videography. (2) The course was conducted in 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Enrollment was 5, 11, 9, and 10 for these years, respectively. (3) Students were all evaluated according to their assigned work and their term paper. (4) The question sets prepared for students were more closely aligned with the course and suggestions by the instructor for term papers were made more clearly. (5) Also, AdobeConnect software used for the on-line presentations hasfunctioned more smoothly (this software presented numerous problems during the first two years [Fall semester 2013 and Spring semester 2015]).
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Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Nine undergraduate students enrolled in this course, Apiculture and Pollination Biology,for the Spring 2016 semester. This course is an elective for the Agriculture, Food and Environment degree at Kentucky State University. Changes/Problems:Staffing problems at the University slowed some activities, including the construction of our observation bee hive and the planting of buckwheat and other crops at the University farm. Consequently some videography and photography has been deferred to 2017. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This course was communicated widely to students at Kentucky State University and to beekeepers in Kentucky. A poster describing the course was presented at the American Bee Research Conference in January 2016: "On-line Apiculture: Methods for distance teaching bee and pollination biology" T. C. Webster. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I plan to continue to video honey bee activities such as brood rearing by nurse worker bees. This will require some modifications of the observation hive. An additional camera will be purchased for close-up photography and videography. An ultraviolet-sensitive camera will be purchased, so that ultraviolet reflectance from flowers may be recorded and presented to students. Ultraviolet sensitivity is an important part of bee biology and pollination syndromes. Polarizing filters will be used to record polarized light patterns in the sky, which are used by bees for orientation. The polarization of light reflecting off of water surfaces will also be recorded, to show how bees find water. Also, I plan to construct an additional observation hive to improve opportunities for videography.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
An observation bee hive was constructed, and a colony of honey bees was installed in this hive. It was established at the Kentucky State University Research and Extension Farm near Frankfort. This hive, mounted indoors with transparent sides, allowed close viewing of honey bee activities. Also, bee flight in and out of this hive, could be easily viewed from outdoors. This observation hive provided opportunities for additional videography on honey bee biology.Recorded behaviors by worker bees werethe waggle dance and tremble dance, and the retinue workers form around the queen bee. Flight behavior by foraging worker bees was recorded at the hive entrance. Mite control methods for beekeepers, a bee dissection workshop,and a beginning beekeeping presentation were recorded at a Heartland Apicultural Society conference in Bowling Green KY. Video recordings of drone flight over an experimental 800 meter-long patch of blooming buckwheat were made. This will help explain studies ofthe effects of pathogens on worker bee foraging. These recordings will be edited in preparation for the coming Spring 2017 semester, when the course will be offered for the fourth time.
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Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Eleven students enrolled in the Apiculture course during the Spring 2015 semester, and another student completed an independent study project based on this course. This is an increase over the five students who took the course the first time it was offered, in Fall semester 2013. Changes/Problems:There have been no significant problems or changesin the approach. We have not yet set up an observation bee hive (a hive with transparent sides set up indoors) due to staff shortages at the KSU Research Farm. However this will be done soon, and we plan extensive footage and photos of honey bee activities. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The course has allowed the instructor (T. Webster) to become familiar with Adobe Connect as a medium for presenting the course on-line, including video clips. I received training on Blackboard at an event at the University for this purpose. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results from the success of this course have been provided to students at KSU and also to beekeepers at meetings around Kentucky. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The course materials will be further developed and video footage will be edited. This includes video of a University of Kentuky horticulturist discussing apple pollination, a KSU extension specialist discussing paw paw production and pollination, and selected scenes of bees and beekeeping activities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
(1) Additional course material and photos were added to the Powerpoint presentations, to make the course more comprehensive and clear to the students. At this time, 41 lectures have been prepared, covering the 41 class meetings planned for each semester. (2) Each lecture was archived and the students were given a URL for each lecture, archived in Blackboard. Also, the Powerpoint presentations, without audio, were saved and these were archived in Blackboard. In this way the students could review each lecture,or study individual slides, when they were able to do so. (3) The course was announced topotential students via the University catalog, and also to potentialnon-traditional students outside theUniversity, before the semesterbegan.(4) The course was conducted for the second time during the Spring 2015 semester. Eleven srudents took the course this semester and another student studied the material as part of an independent study course. This is an increase from the five students who took the course the first time, (5) The students were evaluated by their completion of "question sets", a term paper and class participation. Each question set covered a different portion of the class material. (6) The couse material has been augmented and improved substantially since the course was first taught during Fall Semester 2013.
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience includes KSU students and the general public in Kentucky. The course "Apiculture and Pollination Biology" was developed and then presented to five students as an undergraduate course in the Kentucky State University College of Agriculture, Food Science and Sustainable Systems. This was a three-credit course offered in the Fall semester in 2013. All students who enrolled finished the course with passing grades. Two of the students were "non-traditional", meaning that they worked full time while taking the course. The other three students completed the course as part of their degree requirements. Changes/Problems: We anticipate no major changes. Some minor changes may be made as new technology becomes available. A small drone may be used for aerial views of large scale planting of bee-pollinated crops. A recently purchased z-stacking mechanism for 3-D micrographs of biological tissue will allow us to explain the biology more clearly. A RT-PCR system will be used to show how modern molecular biology can elucidate methods for detection of pathogens, and the sequencing of important genomes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A graduate student learned about pollination biology while working on this project. The project has stimulated thinking about novel ways in which the subject matter may be presented. For example, a small drone with a camera might be used to photograph large, experimental plots of bee-pollinatedplants or the drone congregation areas in which queen and drone bees mate. Also, our microscope now used for laboratory studies of honey bees can be used to construct 3-dimensional images of honey bee, flowerand pollenmorphology. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The course offering was communicated to KSU students, as well as the general public in Kentucky. We are developing and editing the material we have recorded so that it may be disseminated to others with similar interests. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue to photograph and video record aspects of apiculture and pollination biology, including honey bee behavior inside of glass-walled observation hives and bumble bees pollinating tomatoes inside of greenhouses in Kentucky. Also, activities of beekeepers as they load hives onto trucks for migratory beekeeping will be recorded. Newly published books and articles on special topics will be used to improve the course. For example, a study of top-bar hives has been recently published to advocate this new style of hive. Current problems in honey bee diseases, parasites and pesticide poisoning have been addressed by recent scientific studies.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The objectives 1 - 5listed above were accomplished, including the first-time presentation of the course during August to December 2013. In addition, Objective 6 was accomplished through outdoorvideography of additional crops. Editedfootage will be added to future lectures. A video recording of KSU extension specialist Sheri Crabtree explained the pollination of pawpaw, a crop studied at KSU.This included the history, biology, cultivationand pollination of pawpaw, which is native to Kentucky and much of North America. Pollination of hemp, an experimental crop now studied in Kentucky, was also video recorded. Imaging of pollen grains by light microscopy was accomplished so that pollen morphology, chemistry and biology can be more effectivelyincorporated into thecourse lectureson pollination biology. Outputs 1 and 2 were accomplished: the new course was completed and conducted; and the students acquired a thorough understanding of apiculture and pollination biology, as well as scientific methods which have allowed the accumulation of this knowledge.
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Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The Apiculture course was developed as a 3-credit, online course entitled "Apiculture and Pollination Biology". It was offered through the College of Agriculture, Food Science and Sustainable Systems at Kentucky State University. Preparations for the course included video recording of honey bees and beekeeping activities. Five students enrolled in this course, and the course began on August 19, 2013 as planned. Two of the students are undergraduates at Kentucky State University, one is a graduate student in the Masters in Environmental Studies at KSU, and two are non-degree seekingstudents taking the course for professional development. Changes/Problems: I have decided to provide video recordings directly to students rather than through You Tube. This is simpler, and allows me to present longer recordings than allowed by You Tube. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The students have been trained as described in the accomplishments described above. This bears on the development of at least two of the students who have as their professions the need to understand apiculture and pollination. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? At this point I have had discussions with colleagues who teach apiculture at their own institutions, regarding what can be included in such a course. I expect to expand on these discussions in the coming year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? I plan to work with our videographer (D. Thomas) and graduate student (J. Palmer)to make and edit additional recordings of bee behavior (inside glass-walled observation hives); greenhouse pollination of tomatoes by managed bumble bees in western Kentucky; interviews with specialists in other crops (e.g. pawpaw) and pollinators (e.g. solitary bees); queen and drone growth andmating biology.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
(1) Reading material was prepared and made available: a copy of "How honey bees find a home" by T. Seeley, from a 1982 Scientific American article.Also, students were referred to the text book: Honey bee biology and Beekeeping by D. Caron. Selected photos and edited videography, as described in the Products section of this report. (2) This material was presented as part of the lecture, using Adobe Connect.Each lecture was recorded and made available for students to review afterward. (3) The course was advertisedthrough University channels, directly to current students at KSU, and to beekeepers at beekeeping meetingsduring 2012 and 2013. (4) The course began on August 19 andwill finish with the last lecture on December 6, 2013. (5) The students have been evaluated according to their responses to (a) question sets whichallow students to demonstrate their ability to integrate information from the lectures and reading material, and (b) generaldiscussion during lecture during which they may venture comments and questions via a "Chat box" in Adobe Connect. (6) Since this is the first year that the course has been presented,there are no previous years for comparison. However, I do seeopportunities to improve and expand on various topics in the course for the fall 2014 semester. Outputs have been as expected. This course was developed andpresented as planned.Judging by the responses of the students to questions posed to them, they are learning apiculture and pollination biology. The scientific methodcomes in to play onoccasion, when the coursecovers issues regarding scientific controversy and scientific methods.
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