TC Name: Maureen Tromley

Subject Area: Science, Math

Topic: Lesson 8- Why Hexagons?
Age/grade level: Fourth Grade
Unit: The Bee Steward storyline
Time Allotted: 1.5 hours
Lesson Preparation
Purpose/rationale for the lesson:
This lesson will help students to clearly see and understand why honeybees use
the shape of a hexagon in building their honeycomb. Understanding more about bee
homes brings them one step closer to becoming the best possible Bee Stewards.
Learning objectives for the lesson:
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Identify and describe the shape of honeycomb.
2. Describe why honeybees use hexagons to create honeycomb.
Standards:
4.2 Interaction and Change: Living and non-living things undergo changes that involve
force and energy.
4.2L.1 Describe the interactions of organisms and the environment where they live.
4.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is a process of investigation through questioning,
collecting, describing, and examining evidence to explain natural phenomena and
artifacts.
4.3S.1 Based on observations identify testable questions, design a scientific investigation,
and collect and record data consistent with a planned scientific investigation.
4.3S.2 Summarize the results from a scientific investigation and use the results to respond
to the question being tested.
Prior knowledge/background information:
Experience with polygons.
Experience with measuring and using a ruler.
Materials/resources needed:
Laptop ready with various pictures of honeycomb
Document camera
(15 each color) 2x9 strips of construction paper in yellow, blue, green, red, and purple
Tape
5 balloons (blown up only about 1)
Lesson Procedures
Introduction:

Tromley/ The Buzz on Bees!

[10 minutes] After gathering the class on the rug, I will open the lesson by first showing
pictures of honeycomb on the document camera. I will ask that the students take a minute
or so silently making observations about honeycomb- anything that they notice. After a
number of students have shared their observations, I will move the class toward a
discussion around the following guiding question: Why do honeybees use hexagons to
build their hives instead of triangles, squares, pentagons, or octagons? Asking for their
predictions, I will write a number of them down on chart paper for later reference.
Body of the Lesson:
[15 minutes] As our discussion begins to wrap up, I will move on to talk about how we
are going to test the theories or predictions that we came up with as a class. I will model
on the document camera as I talk- using 2X9 strips of construction paper, groups of 5-6
students will create 3d representations of each polygon shape (hexagons, triangles,
squares, pentagons, and octagons- each using a different color of construction paper.)
Because each of these shapes is equilateral (brief reminder about what equilateral means),
groups will need to determine how long each side of their polygon should be and will
need to measure and mark each fold. Once they have done this, they will need to tape
each end of their folded strip together to create the 3d shape. Each group will have 15
strips of construction paper that will need to be folded. After each of these 15 strips has
been folded and taped, they will then need to tape all of them together side-to-side,
making them fit together as best they can. When they are done with this step, they will
need to answer the following questions as a group and be ready to share their answers
with the rest of the class:
Is the structure strong?
Is there any wasted space?
Does your bee (balloon) fit inside?
(These questions will remain up on the document camera throughout the lesson and work
time)
I will break the class into 5 groups of 5-6 students each. To do this, I will simply ask for
raised hands as I call out each polygon name- if more than 5-6 students raise their hands
for a certain shape, I will call on students of my choosing.
[30 minutes] Groups will work together to create their polygon structures. As groups
finish with creating their polygon combs, I will give them their bee (balloon) to test its
size and remind them to discuss the questions as a group.
[10 minutes] As the groups finish up and have had time to discuss the questions, I will
reconvene the whole class on the rug, asking them to bring with them their polygon
structure, as well as their bee (balloon) and to sit together in their groups. One-by-one
each group will present their structure, share what they discussed around the questions,
and finally, let the class know whether or not they think their shape would work well as
honeycomb. There will be a minute or so for the rest of the class to comment on each
polygon. After each group has presented, we will discuss as a class why hexagons are the
best choice for honeycomb and how our small experiment helped us to see that. We will
also discuss if our predictions from the beginning of the lesson were true or false.

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Extensions/Differentiations:
Differentiation takes place through different modalities (discussion, visual examples,
writing, reading, art, sharing) and social structures (whole class, small group, individual).
Teacher designation of groups facilitates peer-to-peer support for language and content.
More specifically, students #1, #12, #15, and #26 will be thoughtfully placed into groups
that will be most supportive of them (their understanding and their learning) while math
and measurement takes place.
All students will have access to The Bee Box, when they have completed an activity,
however, I will encourage those students identified as TAG to make use of this. In this
box there will be a number of extension activities for students to choose from (see
appendix A). Specifically, student #6 will be strongly encouraged to explore this option
in order to remain productively focused and on task.
Throughout the unit, all students are further encouraged to bring in any outside research
or knowledge, visual examples, or bee products that relate to the current focus to share
with the class.
Closure:
[10 minutes] I will collect the polygon structures and balloons from each group. Before
dismissing the class back to their desks, I will tell them that when I do excuse them, I
would like them to pull out their storyline/science journals and write about the experience
they just had. I would like them to include some of the predictions we made as a class or
had come up with on their own before the experiment, talking about whether or not those
came true. Finally, Id like them to include what they learned about why bees use
hexagons to make their comb, what are the advantages of the hexagon shape?
Lesson Assessment
Evaluation of Student Learning:
I will know students are able to identify and describe the shape of honeycomb (hexagon)
by listening to student input during whole class discussions throughout this lesson. I will
listen for key points such as, a hexagon is a polygon, a hexagon has 6 equal sides.
I will know students are able to describe why bees use hexagons to create honeycomb by
listening to student input during whole class and small group discussions throughout this
lesson. I will listen for key points such as, hexagons fit together without wasting space,
hexagons are big enough to fit all stages of the bee life cycle, hexagons are very strong
when placed side by side, etc.
Lesson Reflection
In contrast to the previous lesson, this lesson did not run as smoothly as I would have
hoped. It was a very involved lesson and I felt as though I had sufficiently planned,
however as the lesson progressed I felt more and more stressed and out of control. It
turned out to be too much of a challenge for the students to determine the correct
measurements for each polygon, so I brought the class back together to figure them out as
a class. During this time, it was challenging for the students to understand exactly where

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on a ruler a measurement like 1.12 was. I modeled each of these on the document
camera, marking where exactly on the ruler each polygon needed to be measuringleaving 5 rulers on the document camera for reference while they worked. About halfway
through this, my CT decided to write the name of each polygon and its corresponding
measurement on chart paper for reference, as well. The last minute necessity and
inclusion of these two elements of the lesson made me feel the most out of control. The
students were feeling nervous and frustrated that they didnt understand, so their
emotions also added to my own similar feelings at the time. I think that looking in on this
lesson, it probably wasnt actually going as chaotically as it felt. In the future, I need to
make sure I really think about all the things that could go wrong, even the smallest things,
and plan accordingly.
As the lesson went on and students were better understanding the measuring, I came up
against another challenge. Because the polygons were made out of construction paper,
they were very pliable, which made normally impossible tessellations, possible. This led
many of the groups to believe that their polygon did not waste any space when side-toside, when, in reality, many did. In order to make up for this, I found pictures of each
shapes tessellation on my computer and showed them on the document camera while
they presented their findings. This changed the answers of a couple of groups, but really
helped the whole class to visually see why hexagons are used. In retrospect, it would
have been very visually helpful for the students if I had modeled this part of the activity,
as well. For example, after creating a couple of 3d shapes in front of the class, as I did, I
should have continued on to tape, or tessellate them together, as a model.
Overall, despite the stress, the lesson objectives were achieved. The students really
seemed to enjoy creating the polygon structures and even wanted them added to our
frieze. They were all able to accurately and fluently describe why bees use hexagons
rather than any other shape.

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