The class has been studying all year how important bees are to the survival of humans.

“We’re gonna die off, as well as them. We need to wake up Mr. Mayor,” student Emma Flick said in her most-determined voice.

The class then surprised Nehring with a proposed resolution asking the city to use bee-friendly plants whenever possible and to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides. Those chemicals, along with predators such as bears who go after the honey in hives, are why one-third of the world’s bee population is extinct. If another third of the bee population dies, humans will die, too, because the food chain will disappear.

Emma Tocco said in the resolution that Seattle, Spokane, Eugene and Portland, OR, have banned the pesticide.

“People are wising up,” McKinney said. “But the United States is behind the curve.”

She said most other countries have banned the pesticide. But the genetic seed giant Monsanto Co. spends so much money is this country that it’s hard to fight.

Nehring said he wasn’t sure if the city used that pesticide, but he would check.

McKinney said there are other options. Instead of chemicals, she said lady bugs are like a natural pesticide, along with companion planting.

“Plants that work well together can eliminate the problem naturally,” she said, adding bees love native wildflowers, herbs, berries and other fruits and many flowering vegetables.

McKinney received a $400 grant from the Pilchuck Audubon for a “help save the bees” project at the start of the year.

The class started the project with research. With their findings they created a Question and Answer Book. It explains: What do bees look like? Where do bees live? What do bees eat? What dangers do bees face? How do bees help the world? How can we help save the bees? Who are our government leaders, and how do we contact them? How can we grow a bee-friendly garden?

The latter project the class also is doing. A Memorial Garden for student Grace Tam, who was killed at the ice caves in 2010, was in disrepair. So the class is fixing up the garden in honor of Grace, and to encourage bee survival. They are going to put lowland plants there to try to attract bees.

The students also wrote letters to lawmakers to try to get them to care about bees.

Brayden Graves wrote: “I am going to be voting to help the bees. I am a fucher voter.”

Abigail Estrada wrote: “Bees are dying because of GMO (genetically modified) seeds and pesticide sprays. We need bees to pollinate our food. Please grow organic so that bees don’t die off.”

Mason Friend: ‘My teacher, Mrs. McKinney, has taught us how important it is to save the bees.”

RyAnn Hansen: “Please join us in the fight to save the bees.”

Sam Gooch: “Large food producers need to grow organic food for bees to live.”

Mckenzie Vogan: “We need bees because they keep our world alive. They pollanate our food.”

Litzy Valdovinos: “Bees are dying also because of the animals like bears and red-tailed hawk and owls and other anemels.”

Miyuki Dolberry and Austin Sielsky both wrote: “Plant flowers for bees so they can make honey for there food.”

Nehring asked the children if learning all this information about bees has changed their lives. One girl said once when shopping she switched some oranges that were GMO to organic.

McKinney said if more people would buy organic the situation would improve and even drive down the cost of those products.

Here are some fun facts the students mentioned:

Brayden: Bees die after they sting you.

Mckenzie: Bees do a circle dance if flowers are close or a wag-tail dance if they are farther away.

Abigail: Worker bees nurse the babies, collect nectar, clean hives, guard the hive and pamper the queen, who lays 2,000 eggs a day.

Jackson Harris: The queen bee decides if the egg is male or female.

Kaila McIlvain: The drones die.

Graecilyn Wykes: There are 70,000 bees in one hive, the same amount of people who went to the Super Bowl.

Preston Davis: After they eat, they barf it up back in the hive.

Other interesting facts in the Q & A book:

• Each hive has a queen bee, 100 male drone bees and thousands of female worker bees.

• The queen lives 3-5 years. Her job is to mate with the drones, who live 3-5 months, as do the worker bees.

• Bees store nectar in their honey sacs, which are like a second stomach.

• Worker bees take pollen from the stamen of a flower to the female parts of another, causing the plant to reproduce.