Positives

• This video is short and to the point. A high school student explains and demonstrates how to do the project.
• The activity is easy to complete and will provide students with a tangible product they can use to help Mason Bees. 

Additional Prerequisites

• To construct a bee hotel, students will need a container (e.g., box, jar, can, mug), tube-shaped objects (e.g., bamboo shoots, rolled magazine pages, wide straws), and twine or string. 
• Teachers may want to provide students with art supplies to decorate their bee hotels. 
• For printable directions, click the link below the video. 

Differentiation

• Math classes could calculate the area and volume of their bee motels.
• Social studies classes could use this project in a unit about supporting the local community.
• Elementary language arts classes could watch this animated video of a wordless book on bees and then complete this project as a follow-up activity.
• This activity would be an excellent station during a station rotation. Students could work on other bee-related work, read nonfiction texts on bees, and complete other activities at the other stations. 
• This activity could be used as a culminating project after studying bees. 
• Other related resources include this video about the importance of biodiversity, this activity that focuses on building a pollinator garden, and this article about plants and animals that are especially confused by climate change.