• Overview
  • Big Idea
  • Building Project
  • Coding Project
  • Reflection

Welcome to the Monitoring Bees and Pollination with a Bug Counter Unit 3! This lesson is aligned with the curriculum for Grade 4 science and is designed to be completed in 40 to 60 minutes.

In this final lesson, students will learn about the important role the bees and other pollinators play in our world. Then they will learn what the world could look like without Bees and other bugs like them. Finally, students will learn about how Scientists and conservationists are working with new technology to protect and preserve bees.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This section aims to introduce the UN SDGs and encourage students to consider how the lesson’s topic and project relate to specific goals.

To learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals, visit here.

This lesson is designed to align with Grade 4 and completed in 40 to 60 minutes. The lesson is structured into three main sections:

  1. Why Do We Need Bees? – Students will investigate the diverse contributions bees make to their ecosystems beyond pollination.
  2. A World Without Bees – Students will consider the implications of a world devoid of bees and the impact this would have on all forms of life.
  3. How Technology Is Helping Save the Bees – In this segment, students will explore how technology is being utilized in new and inventive ways to support bees.

By the end of this lesson, students will gain a deeper appreciation for bees and the vital role they play in our ecosystem. They will become aware of the threats facing bees and discover how technological innovations can provide hopeful solutions. Prepare for an intriguing journey to the intersection of nature and technology, all through the lens of our buzzing allies, the bees!

In this lesson, students will be asked to use the same smart component from the previous lessons.


Using the Touch Sensor, LED, and the breakout board from the climate action kit students will be asked to use materials from around the classroom to create a prototype that can track bug visits.


Consider guiding students through the five stages of design thinking for this building process.

For students who might struggle with designing an original concept, they can use the build from lesson two adding materials from the classroom.

In the lesson, the coding activity is designed to be open-ended with no tutorial to guide students.

Using the code from lesson two students will be asked to add to the code to indicate when the bug visits reach 10.

Key Concepts: Inputs, Algorithms, Conditional Statements, Sequential Events, Variables, Nested Events

Description: From the starter code in Level 2, how can we add to our code to let us know when the ‘bugVisits’ count reaches above 10? When this happens, the LEDs should display a different colour.

A starter code is provided, goal is for them to add the ’10’ value in the right spot, and add the LED light command in that conditional statement.