Thanks for all the great suggestions. I gave two presentations yesterday, back to back. 30 urban summer camp kids in each group. I think it went well. My husband, who works at the community college that was providing the summer camp, was a definite asset.
What started out as 1 hour to 30 kids turned into 2 - 30 minute sessions each with 30 campers. So I was overly prepared, but that's OK. Sorry, no pictures.
There was a young man taking pictures for the college who said he would see that I got copies.
I received some suggestions, and clean unused gear, from a beekeeping gal who does this often. Her suggestions were spot on.
For each presentation, after introductions, I asked for a volunteer to play dress up. All hands raised. Picked a child from the audience I thought would fit into the borrowed bee suit. I had the child start dressing and explained what the purpose of each protective device was for. Finished with hive tool that never leaves your hand and smoker. Explained the purpose and how to operate both of those. As the child undressed I assembled a hive from the bottom board up, explaining as I went.
Next was the power point presentation I had put together. This is where I was short on time, so I whizzed through that pretty quick so that I could tell them about the youth scholarship program through my local bee club. I had info packets ready and passed them out to interested kids. I was also able to inform them about their local city codes regarding beekeeping. As they left, I handed out honey sticks (thanks to beekeeping gal friend) and lip balm that I had made. Some of the kids acted like they had never tasted honey before. (Picture me with a big smile here.
) One boy made sure I saw his tube of Burts Bees lip balm! I also had copies of American Bee Journal and Dadant catalogs to hand out, courtesy of the bee club.
Considering the last minute time restraints, I think all went well, mostly because of my husband's assistance. If I do it again, I have a power point presentation in my bag of tricks.
