A citizen-science bridge for pollinators.
Bee the Bridge borrows the checklist model that made birding data so valuable, and points it at the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds working in our own backyards.
Meet the Bot Brigade!
Hello! We are the Bot Brigade, a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team made up of six enthusiastic 7th grade students. We are excited to be here at the Alcosan Open House to learn more about our community, the environment, and the important work being done to protect our waterways.
This year, our FLL theme is BioGlow: Celebrating Biodiversity. Through this theme, we are exploring the amazing variety of living things around us and thinking about how people, technology, and communities can work together to protect biodiversity and the ecosystems we depend on.
Our Innovation Project: Bee the Bridge
Our innovation project is called “Bee the Bridge.” We are focusing on the important connection between pollinators, biodiversity, and our local environment.
The challenge
Bees and other pollinators play a critical role in healthy ecosystems, but they face challenges including habitat loss, limited food sources, and changes to their environment.
Where we're headed
Our goal is to explore ways that we can create better connections between pollinators and the habitats they need to thrive. We are especially interested in how our community can make small changes that add up to a bigger impact. As we continue developing our idea, we want to make sure that our solution is realistic, useful, and supported by good science — that's why we are looking for experts who can help us learn and improve.
Small sightings add up to big data.
Pollinators are essential to healthy gardens and ecosystems, but they're much harder to track than birds — most projects stop at "we planted flowers" without ever measuring who showed up. Bee the Bridge closes that gap by giving everyday gardeners and neighbors a simple way to log what they see.
Every checklist, no matter how small, helps build a shared picture of where pollinators are thriving across the Pittsburgh region — and where they need more habitat.
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Built like a checklist, run like a garden.
Simple logging
No specialized gear required — just your eyes, a garden, and a few minutes to note what you saw.
Open data
Sightings feed a shared, growing record that anyone can browse by hotspot or by species.
Community first
Built by and for local gardeners, naturalists, and pollinator enthusiasts across the region.