"We have just launched The Great Sunflower Project, a community science project with the goal of increasing our understanding of where bees are doing poorly and how the pollination of our garden and wild plants are being affected. We're hoping you will join us by planting sunflowers in your garden. Community, demonstration, and school gardens are invited to participate. We'll send you some free native sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seed and twice a month, we'd like you to time how long it takes for 5 bees to visit one flower on that sunflower. This information will give us an index of pollination that we can compare across the United States. Once we know where bees are in trouble, we can start developing a plan to help them.
You can see the details about the project and register at http://www.greatsunflower.org/ or contact us at email@example.com. Do join us!"
From the sunflower project website:
By watching and recording the bees at sunflowers in your garden, you can help us understand the challenges that bees are facing.
- It takes less than 30 minutes.
- It's easy.
- Free Sunflower seeds for planting.
- No knowledge of bees required!
This is a science-nature-garden learning opportunity in the making. Learn about bees with the Bee Guide. Learn how to plant a bee garden. And best of all, this is a hands-on project that allows you to participate in real-life research that can benefit your community.
We can't wait. Hope you'll join us!