Posted: 01/06/20
Rooms vacant at the insect hotel thanks to learners
Getting creative in the great outdoors has been a firm favourite of students from West Nottinghamshire College – and this time they’ve been creating ‘insect hotels’ in their gardens.
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Paulina Gasparowicz with her finished bug hotel
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Paulina working on the main part of her bug hotel
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Amy Swain recycled household items for her project
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Linda Kiselovas' creation in a quiet spot in the garden
Following their lessons online about the lifecycles and habitats of insects, animal care tutor Cherilyn Huff set a project for students to create homes for insects out of items they could find around the house.
Students on the Introduction to Animal Care course learnt more about how important insects are for the environment, as well as discovering what they eat, the kind of threats they face and what their habitats are like.
They were asked to complete a practical activity to make a simple insect home and place it in a safe, dark area in their gardens and then submit a photograph and a write-up explaining how it was created.
The group also tuned-in to television wildlife expert Steve Backshall’s live YouTube lesson about insects to give them additional information about the life of bugs and creepy crawlies.
Cherilyn said: “The group worked really hard on this project, both in terms of learning more about these ‘mini beasts’ and how they live, and also putting their efforts into crafting insect hotels from a range of materials.
“We covered a range of facts about all sorts of insects including spiders, butterflies, snails, caterpillars and bees, and the class learnt such a lot. We discussed what kind of habitats insects prefer and I was so impressed by their work, I’m quite certain these new insect homes will be moved into very soon!”
Cherilyn also covered the topic of the importance of bees for our environment. The group learnt how honey bee colonies operate with a single queen and hundreds of male drones, together with 20-80,000 female worker bees.
Student Paulina Gasparowicz, from Mansfield Woodhouse, said: “To make my bug hotel I used an old board, a few sticks, a piece of cardboard, chopped bamboo and pieces of wood and wooden balls for decoration.
“It took quite a lot of work because I wanted to make something which wouldn’t break and would last a long time. I hope that it’s suitable for a range of insects like ants, beetles, caterpillars and maybe even bees. Our gardens get so many different insects in them so I shall wait and see.”
