KATHY CHANG Elaine Matthews, science teacher for the first to fifth grades at South River Primary and Elementary schools, teaches the life cycle of the honeybees during a class recently. The honeybee nursery was recently installed into her second-floor classroom at the school. SOUTH RIVER — Science has become hands on for borough children.

"I am currently teaching the life cycle and pollination to the first and second grades, and with the honeybees they can see for themselves," said teacher Elaine Matthews of the science project at the primary and elementary schools.

With an idea that stemmed from her beekeeper neighbor, Charlie, in the borough, Matthews traveled down with her daughter, Brook, who is in her second-grade class, to Flemington to pick up a bee nursery.

"It was really cool," she said. "My neighbor, who nurses bees at his home, donated one of the glass nurseries, and my daughter and I traveled to Flemington to pick up the bees."

The bee nursery, which has approximately 10,000 honey bees, was set up with the help of the maintenance crew at the elementary school in the back of Matthews' second-floor classroom, which overlooks the track.

"The honeybees are interesting to follow, the students are really excited, I'll see my students in the hallway and they will ask me 'How are the bees?'" Matthews said. "My classroom worked out perfect because we are on the second floor and from the outside, there really hasn't been any negative effect such as a swarm of bees, and they haven't bothered anyone."

The students learned safety rules when handling the bee nursery as well as information on honeybees. The classes learned that male honeybees called drones get help from the worker bees when hatched from their egg, and the female bees have to chew and wiggle themselves out of the egg. The worker bees then feed bee bread, which is a mix of pollen and honey, to the young bees and also the queen bee.

"I have spotted the queen bee once," said Matthews. "It's easier to spot her when most of the honeybees are outside."

Sherlyn Mota, 8, said she likes seeing the bees.

"I like seeing the bees because one time, I saw a beehive outside my house," she said.

Matthews said the classes also study and release butterflies, which ties into the pollination curriculum as well.

Besides the honeybee nursery, Matthews, with the help of the PTO, developed a garden enclosed in the courtyard of the South River Middle School. The students spent time cleaning out the space, recycling garbage, and pulling out weeds on Earth Day so that they could start planting.

"The garden has been fun, seeing all the worms as well as helping out the environment," said Steven Azanezo, 9.

The classes put a time capsule in the ground of all the pledges that they made to the environment so that it could be a better place.

"We also took home cabbage and tomato plants to see them grow for our end-of-theyear project," said Ariana Costa, 8.