Bat Day

Objective:
The students will explore echolocation as a mechanism used by bats for locating food.

Materials

• A nonfiction bat book which explains echolocation or a link to one of the following websites:  Echolocation And How It Works or Bat Conservation International (this site contains actual audio clips of bat calls.)
• Tuning forks, musical triangles or drums. (Or any other object available to demonstrate sound vibrations.)
• A space, such as the school gym or auditorium which allows for hearing echoes. 

Procedure

1. Introduce the term echolocation.  You may want to do this through a book or at an aforementioned web site.  
2. If possible, play the audio clips of the bat calls.
3. Pass out the tuning forks (or other object) and have the students explore "feeling" the sound waves in the vibration.
4. Discuss how sound waves actually travel through the object and the air.
5. Go to the space which was selected for the students to test making their own echoes.  Discuss how they actually hear their own voices (or other noises made) by the sound waves of their voices bouncing off the objects (such as the walls) of the room

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Introduce to the students that bats are the only flying mammal.  Have the students classify animals using the  Classifying Worksheet.
2. Do a Venn Diagram comparing a Bat Wing and a Human Hand.
3. As also listed in the Language Arts Lesson, make Bat Vocabulary books.  These books can include words such as roost, mammal, echolocation, and nocturnal.
4. Compare the varied diets of different types of bats. 
5. Compare and contrast 2 types of bats.