Waynesburg U. to utilize Alston Farm for special topics “Bees, Flowers and Society” course

Waynesburg University will offer a special topics course titled, “Bees, Flowers and Society,” at its off-campus property, Alston Farm, during the upcoming spring 2025 semester.

The course, which will be the first to be held at the farm, is open to any Waynesburg student with an interest in bees, flowers and preserving Pennsylvania’s ecosystems.

“We will explore the important ecological relationship between flowers and honey bees by building our own bee farm (apiary) and planting flowers that are pollinated by bees in the production of honey,” Dr. Janet Paladino, Environmental Sustainability Coordinator at Waynesburg University, said.

Within the curriculum, students will take part in discussions on the important relationship between plants and pollinators and how to identify each, as well as the impact of bees on agriculture and the corresponding conservation challenges.

Hopefully, this course will be the start of many future endeavors to use the farm to teach other environmental science topics or expand into agricultural educational programs.”

Andy Heisey

Dr. Paladino will co-teach the course with Professor Andrew Heisey, who worked on the award-winning Plastics to Progress course with Dr. Paladino and others. They plan to install a total of four hives at the farm in the spring, where students will learn about the biology of bees and pollinators.

“Using what they learn, they [students] will care for our new bees and grow plants that will support them,” added Heisey. “The goal is to expand this program into a micro student industry to sell not only honeybee products but also cut flowers. Hopefully, this course will be the start of many future endeavors to use the farm to teach other environmental science topics or expand into agricultural educational programs.”

The idea for the course was generated through Dr. Paladino’s passion for growing native plants and cut farming and Heisey’s recent interest in beekeeping.

With a deep fear of stinging insects, Heisey’s drive to explore the possibility of launching a beekeeping program at the University worked to not only help him overcome that fear but discover a new passion.

“I tell everyone that, ‘I am emotionally allergic to bees,’” he joked. “However, as the need for someone to investigate a beekeeping program at WU, God put on my heart a passion to learn everything I could about this potential business venture.”

With God’s leading, Heisey spent time with local beekeepers to inspect their hives and even took a community beekeeping course through Penn State Extension. With the help of these local beekeepers, he aims to generate ideas on how to create a honey business at the University, where students will be able to put their entrepreneurial skills to use alongside their newfound beekeeping knowledge.

Dr. Paladino said she believes hands-on experiences are the most successful ways to teach students about environmental science. It also gives them a real-world look at some of the environmental issues happening around the globe.

“Students may hear about the loss of native ecosystems on social media, but rarely have the opportunity to experience issues and potential solutions first hand, and are unaware about what can be done to insure food security and our local economies in the future,” she said.

Through hands-on learning at Alston Farm, she also hopes it will encourage young people to consider farming opportunities in rural areas like Greene County.

“As of the 2022 Farm Census, Pennsylvania leads the country in the percentage of young farmers at 12%, but most of these are in urban locations,” she shared. “We would like to encourage young people to recognize the small farming opportunities that exist in rural areas like Greene County, which continues to fade in vibrancy as a farming community. We hope to educate students in land conservation and building industries that connect marginalized communities with opportunities in agriculture.”

In the future, Dr. Paladino plans to offer a course in Agricultural Entrepreneurship at the farm. Grants are also being explored to offer funding for student internships at Alston Farm during the summer.

Alston Farm was recently donated to Waynesburg University with the purpose of offering opportunities for student and faculty outcomes, new and expanded student instruction and community outreach.