Session: Construction + Community, Fall 2025

Builders: 13 high school students

Materials: locally sourced bamboo, redwood

Tools: drill, impact driver, chop saw, hand saws (coping, hack, crosscut, pruning), drill press, band saw, circular saw

Description:

We revisited a project we completed in 2021, but with a twist. In this short six-week session, our high school builders constructed and designed six colorful pollinator bee boxes—or rather bee mansions—for Garden to Table Silicon Valley that stand about 3 1/2 feet tall. These pollinator bee mansions simulate natural nesting sites like hollow stems or holes in wood and will provide nesting and shelter for solitary bees that pass through the garden! We put a call out to our community for bamboo, and in less than 24 hours, we acquired enough to create “rooms” for the introverted bee.