A Transition Year group qualified for the national final of the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalists Awards and were awarded the SciFest 2017 Abbott Runner-up Best Project Prize in Dublin recently. This means that they have now qualified to have their project considered for the SciFest 2017 Science Foundation Ireland Intel ISEF Award, which will be held in Dublin in November. Known as “Bee-Co UNESCO”, the group were striving to make people more aware of the decrease in bee numbers and how we can protect them. The school will be represented by Ciara Carroll, Kate Kirwan and Niamh O’Dowd. There was great excitement in the school when the project was shortlisted for the Final, where they joined over 80 other groups from around Ireland, having gotten through the Leinster ECO-Den.

Bees’ existence has become under huge threat in recent years, with up to 70% of a hive dying in one season. Many species are under threat of extinction due to pesticides, climate change and destruction of their natural habitat. With many farmers now cutting down natural meadows for agricultural use, the bees’ natural habitat is being destroyed.

A lot can be done to help solve this problem. People can leave natural meadows growing in their garden, plant bee friendly flowers, such as lavender, make bee baths and bee houses and buy local honey. On a larger scale, farmers can be encouraged to change the pesticides they use and anyone can set up hives to keep bees.

Bee-Co UNESCO carried out an awareness campaign in the school including a ‘Bee Day’. A bee garden was planted at the back of the school. The group sold honey flapjacks in school to finance this garden. Leaflets and ‘Bee Tags’ were left in local garden centres to make the local community aware of the problem.