On Sept. 4th grade the students explored the role of honeybees as pollinators and how honeybees and other pollinators help pollinate specialty crops like lavender. Morgan Smith chose this lesson in honor of September being national honey month. The students learned how bees create memories and how they communicate to other bees by performing bee dances. The students played a game of memory to demonstrate how bees make memories. She told them bee memories can sometimes be affected by chemicals in the environment which is known as epigenetics - when things in the environment change how genes are expressed. Because genes help make bee memories, epigenetics is important for bees to survive. If the bees can make memories and remember where the flowers are it will allow them to better return to the flowers and better survive. Asking students, if they had a blind fold on would be as easy for them to find matches? They had said no. The blindfold represents how a gene trait (like eyesight) might be turned on or off. Morgan explained why it is important that the bees work together, because it helps them survive.