Batty About Echolocation

What do is echolocation?• ECHO

• LOCATION

What is Echolocation?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAvoz_ofoeo&feature=

youtu.be

•

• http://www.batsaboutourtown.com/pages/BatSounds.htm

What do bats sound like?

What did you learn?• Draw pictures and write facts to

show what you learned about bats

and how they use echolocation.

– Use your science notebook.

What do we know about echolocation?

• Bats are not actually blind

• “see” with sound

– Make noise that bounces off objects and living

things

– Echo tells them how close and what shape

• Echolocation helps bats avoid obstacles

and find food

What does this diagram show?

Batty GroupsEgyptian Fruit Bats Little Brown Bats Ghost Bats

BellaDeanSherylElijah

HaileyMattKelseyChristopher

BradyAmandaJoeyAudrey

Vampire Bats Lesser Horseshoe Bats

Spotted Bats

NoahSophieOlivia M.Owen W.

Tommy MaryHunterKim

Olivia H.GavinOwen C.Katie

Part 1: You as an Insect

• Pretend the motion sensor is a bat

hanging from a branch and you are

the insect it wants to eat.

• Collect several runs of data to learn

what the bat “sees” when you (the

insect) do different things.

Part 1: You as an Insect

1. Standing still at .5 and 2 meters

2. Walking slowly and quickly away from bat

3. Walking slowly and quickly toward the bat

4. Jumping up and down in front of the bat

5. Analyze your data.

6. Experiment with other motions.

Part 2: Following Path of Other Insects

• Open files and see the path of other

insects that flew in front of the bat and

were able to escape

• Stay away from the bat by trying to follow

their path (and make the same graph line)

• Write directions to create graph line

Part 2: Following Path of Other Insects

1. Insect 1

– Fill in blanks for directions to match flight

– Try to follow path

– Reflect on success of directions

2. Insect 2

– Write directions to match the flight path

– Try to follow path

– Reflect on success of directions

3. Analyze your data.

4. Construct echolocation poster.

• White cane helps people feel for

and avoid obstacles

– Far from perfect

• Added special handle with

transmitters

• Ultrasound signals bounce off

objects and echo back to cane

– Turned into vibration felt with hand

– Brain makes mental map

The Boy that Sees with Sound

• Video

– http

://scienceblogs.com/neuro

philosophy/2011/05/25/hu

man-echolocation-activat

es-visual-parts-of-the-brai

n

/

• Article

– http

://www.people.com/people

/article/0,,1212568_1,00.

html

Recommended Websites• Bat Conservation International

– http://www.batcon.org/index.php/all-about-bats/kidz-cave.html

• Discovery Kids

– http://kids.discovery.com/tell-me/halloween/are-bats-really-blind

• Kid Zone

– http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/bats/

• Questions and Answers About Blindness

– https://nfb.org/nopbc-questions-kids-ask

• The UltraCane

– http://www.ultracane.com/index.php?route=common/home