OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An assistant professor of biology at a college in central Omaha has embarked on an experiment to add a honeybee hive to the campus in order to promote education and appreciation for bees.

Amanda Roe brought the hive and a box containing about 5,000 bees and a queen to the College of St. Mary this month to not only demonstrate bee behavior, but to assist in lessons about plants, flowers and pollination.

Scientists have paid attention for over a decade to the declining bee population evidently caused by pesticides and other factors. Roe says she’s more concerned about the declining wild bee population than the honeybee population because humans can raise honeybees to bolster their numbers.

Roe hopes the hive will show that insects aren’t “gross and icky” creatures.