'Save The Bees' Project By Bergen County Middle-School Students Wins National Contest

FRANKLIN LAKES, NJ — Every time one of her seventh-grade students asks Alyssa McAloney why she wanted to teach, the Franklin Avenue Middle School teacher said, she tells them she wanted to share her love of science with others, and show real-life examples in which science is used.

In continuing with those principles, McAloney entered her students, who were in the school's gifted and talented program, into a national competition designed to encourage career exploration, and though they encountered difficulties, they beat over 500 teams to win with their proposed solution to help save the bees.

"Finding out the students won was pretty incredible," McAloney said. "I was thrilled, and they were thrilled. Their faces just lit up; they couldn't believe it."

The group of four students, known as Team Passion Project, with the help of their teacher McAloney, was awarded $10,000 for the school and $1,500 to split among them, after winning the American Student Assistance "Solve Together" competition earlier this summer.

All four of the students were in McAloney's science class as well, where the problem of disappearing bees was discussed, and that, she said, motivated the students to raise awareness about saving the bee population. Around the same time, McAloney found out about the contest and thought it would serve as a good career exploration activity for the students.

For their winning project proposal, the students approached the problem of honeybee decline from the perspective of a professional bee transporter, and they looked specifically at how transportation often puts stress on the bees.

After researching the issue, the students interviewed experts, including a current bee transporter and a Cornell University agricultural professor, and created a prototype out of cardboard of a transport truck that would ensure proper storage at the ideal temperature.

For two months, the students worked to finalize the presentation to show the judges of the contest, which had submissions across 48 states.

"They deserved (the win). They worked hard, and it was a tough challenge," McAloney said, adding that she hopes one of the students will aspire to, one day, keep bees of their own now, or even see it as a possible career path.