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Inside a Honeybee Message

Compare two original articles about honeybee communication, analyzing how evidence and interpretation shape each writer’s explanation.

Grade 7ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRI.7.9

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Single worksheet
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1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 7
Subject: ELA
Question types: Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare the evidence two authors emphasize when explaining honeybee communication.
Students analyze how authors interpret shared facts to shape different explanations.

How to use

Have students annotate each author’s main emphasis before answering. Discuss how accurate articles can offer different explanations without contradicting each other.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RI.7.9

Analyze how authors writing on the same topic shape it differently by stressing different evidence or reading the facts differently.

Preview

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Name Date

Inside a Honeybee Message

Compare how two science writers explain the same communication system.

Two Views of Bee Communication

Read both articles. Notice which facts each writer develops and what those facts help the writer explain.

Text A: Directions in a Dance

1A honeybee returns from a distant patch of flowers and moves across a comb inside the hive. During part of her dance, she runs forward while shaking her body. She then loops back and repeats the movement. Other workers follow closely. To a human observer, the performance might look like excitement. Yet the pattern contains information about a place the followers have not visited.

2For food sources far enough from the hive to prompt a waggle dance, the direction of the straight, shaking run matters. On a vertical comb, a run pointing upward indicates travel toward the sun. A run angled away from upward indicates a corresponding angle away from the sun’s direction. The dance therefore represents an outdoor direction using a reference available inside the hive: gravity. Followers must connect that indoor pattern with the position of the sun outside.

3Distance also appears in the movement. In general, a longer waggle run indicates a longer journey. This is not a tiny street map or an exact promise about where every flower stands. Still, the dance can narrow a follower’s search to a particular direction and approximate distance. Studies in which researchers observe dances and track departing bees show that recruits often begin searching in the area indicated by the dance.

4The returning worker also carries flower odors, and followers may receive a taste of collected nectar. Those clues can help them identify the food when they reach the search area. However, a flower smell does not by itself specify which direction to fly from the hive. The dance adds a kind of information that the scent alone cannot provide.

5Not every follower arrives at the same spot, and a bee may need to search after leaving the hive. Such variation does not erase the relationship between a dance pattern and a distant location. A useful test is whether changing the pattern changes where recruits search. Viewed this way, the small movements on the comb are remarkable because they represent something beyond the hive walls.

Text B: More Than a Set of Coordinates

1Descriptions of honeybee communication often begin with the waggle dance: its angle indicates direction, and the length of its shaking run relates to distance. Those features deserve attention. But imagine receiving directions to a building without knowing which doorway to enter or what to look for when you arrive. To understand how bees use a message, we also need to follow what happens around the dance.

2A returning forager does not bring movement alone. Flower odors cling to her body. She may share collected nectar with other workers. Followers remain close to the dancer on the comb. The odor and nectar give recruits clues about the food they are being directed toward. These details connect the distant destination with something a recruit can recognize through its senses.

3Inside a dark hive, followers do not simply watch a bright display as people might watch a road sign. Close contact, air movements, and vibrations help them follow the performance. The angle and duration still matter, but they arrive through a physical encounter among bees. Describing only the pattern leaves out how a follower gains access to it.

4The message also continues to matter after departure. A recruit may fly toward the indicated area and then search rather than land immediately on the same flowers. Familiar odors can help guide that final search. A bee’s previous experience with feeding places can also influence its choices. Different flight paths therefore need not mean that the dance carried no information; they can show that the bee combines a message with other clues.

5Researchers can learn much by matching dance patterns with flight directions. They can ask additional questions by studying what recruits do when familiar odors are present or when followers have different experiences. These approaches examine different parts of one process. The dance supplies valuable location information, but successful communication also involves receiving, recognizing, and using it. A complete account follows the message beyond the movements of the dancer.

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