West End School was buzzing with excitement on Friday as students got the chance to explore the world of bees.

Dr Sandra Accari, a senior tutor in Foundation Biology and Human Bioscience at Massey University, spent an educational day with the children testing hypothesis they had developed earlier in the week.

She worked with students to develop their own questions, then each class had to come up with a different theory.

This term their enquiries were centred around bees, and the children had been out exploring and conducting experiments to test their assumptions.

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Accari said the bee study was perfect as the children had just started planting a school orchard.

“It tied in with the idea that we need bees to make our fruits. That got them thinking about how bees are important and what would happen if we lost all the bees.”

Accari said she delighted in seeing all the diverse ideas generated and said children’s inquisitive minds made it the perfect time to start introducing science.

“It’s their level of enthusiasm, they are super excited about everything that they do. Everything is driven by them, and it is just so rewarding to see kids so excited to learn something new.”

She said the lack of science at primary level could be put down to the pressure on staff to cover so many other areas, and admits that it could seem like an overwhelming subject to teach.

“[But] teachers have seen that you don’t need much to do science, it’s everywhere. You don’t have to be in a lab, you can get out of the classroom and just explore the world.

“I get to bring my joy and passion here to spread around, and the teachers enjoy it as much as the kids.”

Jackson Bleakley, 10, said his class had set a hypothesis that explored if honey could be dissolved in water or oil.

Jackson explained the class set up three beakers, one with oil, one with cold water and one with hot. They then added honey to see which one would make it dissolve.

“In the oil it didn’t dissolve, in the cold water it dissolved a little, but in the hot water it dissolved completely, and that worked best.”

The experiment prompted Jackson to think of other questions he wanted answered.

“Now I would like to find out that if bees make a hive, after a certain time do they move out of that hive and build a new one? That’s what I want to know.”

Assistant principal Dan Minchin said the children had started to apply the same mindset to other subjects.

“Those questions of why things happen, you see the kids formulate different ideas, and it leads into other areas as well.

“We hear them out on the playground discussing these different ideas and questions, and they are really excited to find out. It's really great to see.”