Overview: This explorer shows how honey bees communicate useful information about food. A foraging worker finds a food source, returns to the hive, and shares information with nestmates using movement, angle, duration, vibration, and social interaction.
1. Macro: Foraging Bee
Sender: a returning forager bee. Information source: a flower with nectar or pollen. Context: the outside environment, including the position of the sun and location of the food source.
2. Colony: Hive Communication
Inside the hive, the bee communicates on the comb where nearby workers can gather. The comb acts as a communication surface, and surrounding bees act as receivers that detect the message.
3. Code: Waggle Dance
The waggle dance communicates meaning through motion. The angle of the waggle run communicates direction, and the duration of the waggle run communicates distance. Bees also use touch and vibration to interpret the message.
Science Connections
Biology: honey bees use social behavior to improve colony survival. Physics: motion, angle, vibration, and time can encode information. Engineering: signal systems often depend on a sender, a channel, a receiver, and a code.
Signal Lab Transfer
Use the bee system as a model for designing signals. Ask: Who is the sender? What is the signal? Who is the receiver? What does the receiver need to understand or do? Can meaning be encoded through angle, duration, motion, or multiple channels at once?