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Laura came into our class and talked about some of the projects they are doing as a council. She also explained some of the issues they have and how they are trying to fix them. After the talk she came to our table and we explained our idea to her. She seemed to like it and gave us some ideas adding on to ours.
Over all it was a successful lesson :)

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The Humble Bumble idea (as of 18/02/2019) 

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The Humble Bumble idea (as of 18/02/2019) 

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Our project idea is to put small plant boxes up on the sides of  stobie poles. The aim is to improve the safety and survival of Bees in our council area.

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Marshmello ft. Bastille - Happier (Official Music Video)

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We are planing on entering the shark tank competition. We think that we could be successful

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Why Bee Extinction Would Mean the End of Humanity

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Why Bee Extinction Would Mean the End of Humanity

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Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate due to the excessive use of pesticides in crops and certain blood-sucking parasites that only reproduce in bee colonies. It's true that the extinction of bees would mean the end of humanity. If bees didn't exist, humans wouldn't either.

For many of us, bees are annoying. We think that their only purpose is to keep buzzing around and dropping their formic acid-laden stings on random people (this impression will certainly change when we stop getting spoonfuls of sweet honey in our morning cereal).

The truth is, bees are crucial elements of our environment, and almost never get the credit that they deserve.
If bees didn't exist, humans wouldn't either.
Out of the 100 crop species that provide us with 90% of our food, 35% are pollinated by bees, birds and bats ( source). It's that simple.

Bees are the primary initiators of reproduction among plants, as they transfer pollen from the male stamens to the female pistils.

Since 2006, the population of bees has declined considerably ( source). Pesticides, disease, parasites, and poor weather due to global warming have played a major role in this worrying decline.

Are bees endangered?

Bee population has been on a decline in recent years. Some species were added to the endangered list in 2017 (seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees) and 2018 (The rusty-patched bumblebee, Bombus affinis) so as to protect and revive their numbers. There have been a number of reasons for this decline. Let's take a look at few of them.
Recommended Video for you:
Why are bees endangered?

Bees are going extinct mainly because of two reasons: pesticides and parasites.
Pesticides
Since the end of World War 2, the use of pesticides in agriculture has increased exponentially.

This intense use of pesticides, known as a relatively new class of insecticides that affect the central nervous system of insects, resulting in paralysis and death), has had a major role in the bees' decline ( neonicotinoids ( source). When bees are exposed to neonicotinoids, they go into a shock and forget their way home (sort of like the insect version of Alzheimer's).
Parasites
Along with pesticides, parasites known as Varrao mites (also called Varrao destructors) are also responsible for their death ( source). The Varrao can only reproduce in a bee colony. They are blood-sucking parasites that affect adult and young bees equally. The disease inflicted by these mites can result in bees losing legs or wings, essentially killing them.

Colony Collapse Disorder

Beekeepers started reporting a sudden reduction in the number of bees. The adult bees disappeared suddenly and mostly together. The hives were left with just the queen and immature bees. Even the food was present in high quantities. In some cases, few adult bees were found attending to the queen. Reasons mentioned above are two of the many factors that play a role in this disorder.

Effects of bee extinction

Extinction of bees will affect plants, animals, availability of fuels, topography, clothing and of course, human life.
Effects on plants
Some plants are pollinated by wind, but that rate is very slow. Insects are the primary pollinators on the planet. Beetles and butterflies also pollinate, but bees are the most efficient insects for this purpose. Without bees, we wouldn't be able to savor delicious apples, cherries, and many other fruits and veggies (blueberries, avocado, broccoli, most leafy greens, cucumbers, pumpkins, and many more). Almond trees would be among the first casualties.

If bees went extinct, there would be a massive decline in the production of crops. Although crops like rice and wheat don't require insect pollination, can people survive by eating rice and bread all their life?
Effects on animals
Herbivores, who depend on certain plant species, will be affected first. They would go extinct if plants ceased to exist. For example, many cattle used for milk and meat depend on alfalfa and lupins, both of which depend on insect pollination. If the cow's food supply declines, then meat and milk production will decrease. This will seriously affect the human diet.

Due to the declining population of herbivores, tertiary carnivores will begin to suffer immediately. The only beneficiaries from this scenario would be scavengers (eagles, vultures, ravens etc.)
Fuel
Canola, which is grown to use as both a fuel and cooking oil, depends highly on pollination. It is also used to produce biofuel. If we were to run out of biofuel, we'd have to rely on fossil fuels completely, thus putting further pressure on the environment.
Clothing
Cotton is very reliant on pollination. The disappearance of bees will lead to a huge setback in cotton production, as it will significantly reduce our choices in clothes (good luck enduring the humidity of the tropical regions while wearing nylon attire).
Topograhy
Since most plants would be unable to grow, grasslands would become barren and large-scale desertification will take place. Landslides would wipe out villages in one sweep. Ultimately, Earth will become one large plastic-laden desert.

Effects of bee extinction on human life

Less production of food crops will ultimately lead to worldwide famine. Hunger and poverty will be very common. Freshwater will start drying up as well as, as there will be less trees for water retention to occur. With less water and diminishing food, humans will die of thirst and starvation. Fertility would also suffer a setback, followed by a drop in the rate of reproduction. Ultimately, we wouldn't be able to sustain and would be forced into extinction within a few hundred years.

Unless scientists build robotic bees to do the jobs that honeybees once did, we're ultimately doomed. And although this isn't the most serious repercussion, we would never again taste that sweet, savory honey that we forcibly steal from honeybees every day.

The tragic irony of this is that by killing bees, we're only hurting ourselves. Our survival depends on the health of the planet and its species, and unless we begin to face this fact, we will continue to contribute to our own demise. Unless we take drastic measures to save the bees, the planet's survival is in doubt.

Suggested Reading

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Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate due to the excessive use of pesticides in crops and certain blood-sucking parasites that only reproduce in bee colonies. It's true that the extinction of bees would mean the end of humanity. If bees didn't exist, humans wouldn't either. For many of us, bees are annoying.

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- What did you find challenging about this activity?
I found multiple aspects of this activity challenging. Creating the original idea was one of the hardest parts because we had to work together as a team and create multiple ideas in which we chose the best.

- What did you enjoy about this activity?
I enjoyed working with other people and using random topics that were given to us. It was fun trying to think of a product from these three random cards.

- How can you use your experience from this activity in later stages of Action Project?
When we're actually coming up with our product idea. we'll need to keep a certain age group in mind when doing this, so its good having some practice with one we were just given.

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Our original problem that we looked at for about three lessons was girl empowerment. We like the idea and were thinking of possible solutions, but after a few lessons we soon realized that it was too big and kinda impossible to achieve. We then started thinking, "Ok, lets look on a really small scale. what has happened to us today which annoyed us." and we started writing down a list of things and experiences. eventually we got onto the topic of swimming. one of us said that they tried to invite some friends swimming, but they wouldn't come because they said they couldn't. This inspired us to talk about that topic further and ask some other people in our class what they thought. Eventually we settled on the idea.

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1. What will you plan to include in your group’s marketing pitch? (100 words approx.)

Evenly paced , confident speech. A few statistics, but not too many. We should confident in what we are talking about. From what I have seen in the Shark tank episodes that we watched in class, these sort of traits make some pitches more successful than others. We want to come across as as likable as possible so that people take us and our idea seriously.

1. What will you plan to avoid in your group’s marketing pitch? (100 words approx.)

Talking quickly and not sounding confident. We don't want to sound snobby, or rude. If we do these sorts of things we could come across as unlikeable and unprofessional.

1. How will you make your product / service as interesting as possible for the audience, and why? (100 words approx.)

Try and use pictures as examples. If we are just

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I think the pitch went really well! We spoke confidently and we all were confident to talk about different areas of the project. We go some great feed back and we will definitely be looking at that in the future :)
It's cool to see our idea starting to take shape :)))

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Focusing on a pilot

Will communiy buses cover all stduents

Mandatory?

Minortiy group (international students, or new immigrants)

How are we going to get instrutors

Rural kids to beach

What defines your level of swimming

Maybe different skills levels

Have accurate numbers of cost and how many students

150 people for school data (not very persuasive as low numbers)

Focus on a smaller group first, easier to get funding then

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After looking at the feedback from the sharks, we're thinking about how we should and can realistically change our idea in a way that makes it better. I was thinking that we should change our target market for just primary school students to something more specific, e.g international students. we're definitely still thinking about it :)

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We changed the description from 'water safety program' to 'A crash course on water survival' because we thought it captured our goal and our program better.

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We had to think about how we were going to share our idea in a quick and easy manner. We thought about using posters to talk in more depth about certain topics, e.g How much it will cost? What we are doing on each day? why we are different from other companies?

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We wanted to do this so that we could work together more efficiently and be able to find documents that we were using easier. We have a folder for the expo and one for stuff from before the expo.

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We are thinking that we should try and do something different with our stall. Elise thought that it would be cool to have a sort of interactive experience where the parents walk around our stall and have a path to follow. Here is an diagram to explain our idea.

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We're exited for the expo, but we have made a few changes to our ideas for it. We are not going to do the 'interactive path' idea for our stall. We agreed that there just wouldn't be enough space to do it effectively. we are going to instead make posters and have some poster stands to show case our idea. we are also going to have a bowl of lollies to share with the parents and hope that they will be more inclined to look at our stall because of it.

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We did it!  We  worked really hard and I feel like it paid off :)  One of the things we made sure we were prepared with, was having all of us completely understand the company. we wanted to make sure that if someone asked a question that we could all answer if we needed to.  I think that planning specifically paid off because we were able to pair up and talk about our idea with two sets of parents at a time.

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Some important skills that I learned from doing the expo are that the more prepared you are before the day, the easier it is to set up and 'preform'. Another thing that I learned from the expo how to talk to people and get all your ideas out so that people can understand and feel engaged.