Students join Great Georgia Pollinator Census

Pike County Elementary School students from Ashley Wright and Mandi Wood’s Project Based Learning Program took part in the 2021 Great Georgia Pollinator Census as they studied plants at the Wild Daisy Farm in Molena on Aug. 20, made homes for bees and learned about important pollinator traits from Jim Quick, UGA master beekeeper. The special program was organized by the Pike County FFA and UGA extension office. The Great Georgia Pollinator Census is a community science project and over the past two years, more than 8,000 counts were submitted and more than 100,000 insects were counted.On Aug. 20 and 21, participants were asked to count pollinators on a favorite pollinator plant for 15 minutes. Counters place the insects they find into one of eight categories, including bumble bees, carpenter bees, small bees, honey bees, wasps, flies, butterflies/moths and other insects.The goals of the project are to gather data on the pollinator insect population, to create pollinator habitat and to increase entomological literacy around these insects. Find out more about the project at https://GGaPC.org.