Congratulations to Mrs. Hinze's second grade class!

Congratulations to Julie Hinze's second grade class for their video entry in the Cottonwood Creek Environmental Film Festival  sharing what they know about colony collapse disorder in honeybee hives. From the Reader:

Julie Hinze’s second-grade class (17 students, aged seven and eight) at Paul Ecke Central Elementary created an eight-minute film about the ongoing crisis with honeybees — a disappearing-hive phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder.” The children, dressed in homemade honeybee costumes, act out disappearing-bee scenarios. “They designed their own [costumes],” says Hinze. “They used black T-shirts, some put yellow tape on there and a lot of pipe cleaners. It’s so cute.”

The children broke into groups, and each group presented its own interpretation of the current bee predicament. “One group did a little dance,” says Hinze. Another wrote new lyrics to the Ghostbusters theme song, changing it to “bee busters.” One group acted out honeybees enjoying a garden, collecting nectar from flowers. “After it says ‘the end,’” says Hinze, “there’s a little girl dressed up as a bee eating ice cream [Häagen-Dazs’s Vanilla Honey Bee, of which 40 percent of the proceeds goes toward researching colony collapse]. Then three little kids singing, making up a humming noise. I just love that, because it captures their little spirits.”