DOING A BRAIN DUMP

How Busy is a Bee?

Can you write down all you know about a honeybee?

This little creature has a brain the size of a grain of salt, tiny compared to humans, but you will be amazed at what it can do!

Make a list of interesting bits of information to help you craft a Thumbchart on a bee!


Dilip Mukerjea writes:

Bees are four-winged, flower-feeding insects. They have enlarged hind feet, branched or feathered body hairs, and generally a stinger. Honeybees and bumblebees are the most common. Bumblebees are larger and stronger than honeybees.

Bees communicate with each other about food sources using dances. The sounds from the movement of the bees is picked up by the tiny hairs on the bee’s head. Bees use the sun in navigation.

The honeybee’s hive has cells made of wax. This is where the queen bee lays her eggs. She lays up to 2000 eggs per day. A queen bee can live for 3-5 years.

Bees turn the nectar from flowers into honey. Worker bees must visit over four thousand flowers to make just a tablespoon of honey.

Beekeepers must be very careful when they remove honey from the hive. They try not to hurt the bees. The beekeepers give sugar syrup to the bees to replace the honey that they take. There is only one queen per hive.

Now it’s your turn to carry on from where Dilip has left off!

Just be spontaneous!

[Excerpted from the 'Thinkerbelles' edition of The InGenius Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

For me, this is simply a great exercise as well as a stepping stone to a superior idea generation methodology known as 'brainwriting'.

In contrast to the oral sharing of ideas in a team during brainstorming, 'brainwriting' involves team members silently writing & sharing their written ideas.

Research has revealed that 'brainwriting' yields better productivity than 'brainstorming'.

It is believed that its origin has often been attributed to the iconoclast physicist Richard Feynman.