TOPIC: BATS
LEVEL: Advanced
"A Bat House"
[information |
preparation |
activity ]
- SCIENCE CONCEPT:
-
Students can study bats up close and personal by
building a backyard bat house. In viewing bats closely misconceptions
about bats can be erased. Bats are indeed beneficial to us, although
this is a reality that some people find difficult to accept.
- STUDENT OBJECTIVE:
-
The student will build a bat dwelling that can be
placed on the side of a building or attached to a pole or tree.
- OVERVIEW:
-
In many parts of the world, even today, bats are hated and
feared, and they are often associated with evil and death. This is
unfortunate. But bats are useful. Bats eat huge numbers of insects,
they eat flower nectar and carry pollen from flower to flower. Without
these bats the plants would die out. Bat waste, called guano, is used as
fertilizer for plants. Some farmers and gardeners put bat houses in
their yards to attract bats that will eat harmful insects. Bats should
be protected.
- TEACHER TEXT:
-
Bats make their homes in barns, attics, caves, and hollow
trees - any place that is cool and dark. Although they usually live in
small groups, sometimes hundreds of thousands live together in a colony.
The Bracken Cave in Texas is the largest known colony with a population
of 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats.
Most bats are nocturnal and thus do most of their flying
at night. Using their wings and often their tails to scoop up insects as
they fly, many bats eat up to half their weight in insects on a night.
One little brown bat can eat up to 600 insects in an hour, while a colony
can rid us of 6,000 tons of insects in a year.
While feeding on their diet of fruit, tropical bats not
only transfer pollen as they fly from plant to plant, but also contribute
to growing the plant. They can digest their meal of bananas, mangoes,
guavas, and berries in 15-20 minutes. They then pass the undigested
seeds of these fruit while flying, often reseeding clear-cut areas of the
rain forest.
In some areas of the American Southwest, desert plants
such as saguaro and organ pipe cactus are dependent on bats for nighttime
pollination. In turn, animals such as ground squirrels and elf owls are
dependent on these plants for survival. The loss of bats in these areas
would mean the loss of large numbers of plant and animal life.
PREPARATION TIME: 60 minutes
LESSON TIME: 90 minutes
TEACHER PREP:
-
Gather materials.
ASK FOR VOLUNTEERS. USUALLY IN A CLASSROOM THERE WILL BE AT LEAST ONE
OR TWO DADS THAT ARE INTO WOODWORKING AND WOULD BE HAPPY TO HELP!
WORDS TO KNOW:
- colony
- nocturnal
- scoop
- transfer
- pollen
- dependent
- pollination
- conservation
MATERIALS NEEDED:
- One 9' long piece of "1x8" lumber, cut into 6 pieces, each
15 3/4" long for front and back and entrance restriction.
- One 5' long piece of 2" x 2" lumber, cut into 2 pieces, each 22"
long for sides, and one piece 12 3/4" long for ceiling.
- One 16 1/2" long piece of 1" x 4" lumber for roof.
- One piece of l5 1/2"x 23" fiberglass screening (do not use metal
screening).
- STEPS TO FOLLOW:
-
1. Nail back to sides and ceiling.
-
2. Staple fiberglass screening to inside surfaces of back and sides.
-
3. Nail entrance restriction to front, then nail front and roof to sides
and ceiling.
-
4. Make sure all surfaces are free of sharp points.
-
5. Hang house with hooks or nails about 15' or higher on a pole, house,
or tree.
Make sure that the entrance area is clear of obstructions.
-
6. It will probably be inhabited by bats if the house if within a
quarter of a mile of water (such as a stream, river, or lake).
-
7. Make sure that the bat house also receives appropriate sunlight.
- WHY?
-
Bats are a misunderstood species of mammals. If we educate
our students to understand the true wonder of them it will help our
environment for years to come. Without educating our young people they
may make the same mistakes that many of us have made about bats. In most
cases, bats are helpful and not harmful and without them our ecosystem is
endangered!
There is such a variety of bats and their ability to truly fly makes them
an amazing creature.
- ASSESSMENT: Can the student communicate what they observed?
-
4....Student is able to build the bat house and communicate the benefits
of bats to their classmates.
-
3....Student is able to build the bat house and communicate most of the
benefits of bats to their classmates.
-
2....Student is able to build the bat house and communicate some of the
benefits of bats to their classmates.
-
1....Student is able to build the bat house and communicate only one of
the benefits of bats to their classmates.