Students help kids at WonderLab learn

WonderLab's Fourth Annual Honey Harvest Weekend attracted several Bloomington families Saturday and Sunday, which included everything from tasting honey to trying on a beekeeper's suit and IU students played a major part in running the special program.\nSophomore Laura Sears, an elementary education major at IU, coordinated the entire event, which drew more than 160 visitors Saturday alone. She first started working at WonderLab as a volunteer. \nIn 2005, the WonderLab had over 800 volunteers, including many IU students, according to the museum's Web site. This weekend, 16 volunteers contributed to the bee-focused program.\nJunior Meghal Patel, a biology major, volunteered Saturday at Honey Harvest Weekend.\n"I like to work with little kids," she said. "They're always interesting." \nMost of the kids were under ten and brightened a room already filled with hanging airplanes and pictures of animals painted on the walls.\nTracy Hunter, a beekeeper from Hunter's Honey Farm in Martinsville presented, "A Day in the Life of a Beekeeper," showing the youngsters and their parents how bees make honey and how Hunter's Honey Farm extracts the honey to be sold.\n"Even though people fear bees, they're also fascinated by bees," Hunter said. "The entire world of the honeybee is intriguing."\nFree honey samples were a part of the show along with interaction, allowing a volunteer child to try on a beekeeper's suit and try out beekeeping tools.\nAfter the show, attendees walked around the museum's exhibits, which encompassed subjects like shadows, music, bubbles, puzzles and animals. The Honey Harvest program allowed the children to participate in "build-a-bee," a craft project they could take home, as well as honey tasting and candle-making.\n"It's kid-friendly," mother Jennifer Smith said. "They can do stuff by themselves. (They) don't have to have help with a lot of it."\n"I learned about bumblebees," Chloe Smith said, who attended the event with her mother.\nAs Sears supervised activities on Saturday, she said she loved the educational atmosphere at WonderLab.\n"I love the environment," she said. "I'm able to work with kids. (It's) a great place to be"