Lesson 3 - Roosting Ecology of a Bat
Aim: To learn about where bats like to ‘roost’ during the day and how their wings work.
Materials: scissors, brown & green cardboard/poster paper, split pins, coloured pencils
Using the attached outline of a typical bat species, the students will colour in all the sections and connect them with split pins at the black dots. I suggest that you pin the wings behind the main body of the bat, as it will look more effective.
Black outline of the Bat puppet
By using the split pins, the bats wings will move in a ‘closely accurate’ way to live bats in the wild. Give the students a few moments to practice extending the bats wings open and closed.
When a student has finished making their bat and exploring how their wings function, they can start making a large tree display on the wall of the classroom, using the green and brown poster paper. This large tree display will be used to simulate a ‘community roost’ using all the completed bats. It should provide an accurate visualization of a population of bats roosting under leaves, off branches and in hollow sections of the tree trunk.
Bat's don't just sleep in caves!
