Effectiveness of Pollinator Habitat

Researchers are exploring how to maintain and increase beneficial pollinator habitat throughout MSP could have significant and positive impacts on insect pollinator populations. Learn more

The Data Stream: Plotting Pollinators at the Bell Museum

Kid playing a grid game at a museum.

July 29, 2026

By Mary Marek-Spartz, MSP LTER Information Manager

The "Plot A Pollinator" activity at the Bell Museum's 2026 Solution Studio makerspace introduces kids to GIS using real bumble bee distribution data. Designed for lower elementary students, the activity teaches foundational map-reading skills like reading coordinate planes, legends, and heat maps, while sneaking in more complex geospatial concepts like hexagonal tiling and map distortion. It's a hands-on entry point into spatial thinking, built around a question every good scientist asks: what patterns can we find in the world around us?

Urban Pollination is Everybody’s ‘Buzziness’ in the Twin Cities

Three signs standing in a field.

December 21, 2023

By Meghan Klasic, Postdoctoral Researcher in the University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources, and MSP LTER Governance Team

What makes someone rethink their lawn? With help from the MSP LTER Bee Lawn team, Meghan Klasic and other social scientists in the Governance Team surveyed residents open to "pollinator-friendly" lawn management—digging into how they care for their lawns, what they think about pollinators, and how local norms shape their choices.

Subscribe to Effectiveness of Pollinator Habitat