The work of SPA's Middle School Lego League team is profiled in the Sunday, April 30 Pioneer Press. The project aims to raise awareness of Minnesota's dwindling bee population, and includes a website, beekindmn.org, created by members of the team that encourages the public to install bee houses to help save and maintain Minnesota's bees.

The "Bee Kind" project was one element of the Lego League team's year-long work for the competition, which also includes a robotics component. The team, which included Niko Liepins '21, John Hall '21, Harry Jones '21, Tobi Polley '21, and Cooper McKinnon '22, had a very successful season, qualifying for the State Lego League tournament in January. During that qualifying tournament, the team's Bee Kind project was the recipient of the "Best Project" award.

Members of the team continued to work on the Bee Kind project after the completion of the Lego League season. Niko Liepins '21 reached out to local media about the group's work: "Our approach to this problem is not only to raise awareness about habitat loss, but to build bee houses to put around the Twin Cities, and make the building instructions for these houses readily available to the general public so that they can join in the effort," Niko wrote in his letter to the Pioneer Press, which is quoted extensively in the article. "These building instructions along with more information can be found at our website: BeeKindMN.org. By building bee houses for Minnesota’s native bees (which are mostly solitary bees), we are providing a safe place for mother bees to lay their eggs, allowing a new generation of bees to follow."

Congratulations to Niko and all our "Bee Kind" team members!