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Echolocation Skills

Activity

Hello hello hello!

Go find the bat house, then test out your echolocation skills! Gather a few friends or family and pick one person to start as the bat. The bat should close their eyes or be blindfolded. Everyone else is a moth, the bat’s prey! The bat starts by making a high pitched noise. Each time the bat squeaks, the moths should respond to the bat with their own noise, echoing back their potential location. Without looking, point or wander in the direction you think a moth is! If you guess right, switch spots!

Science Seed

Bats, along with species like dolphins, use echolocation to navigate. They make high-pitched squeaks that bounce off objects, creating echoes. By listening to these echoes, bats can determine size, movement, and distance. If they sense something big ahead, they change direction to avoid it. If the echo indicates something small and moving, like an insect, they swiftly swoop down to catch it!

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earn Badges

Badges can be earned through hands-on experiences within each of the 16 branches of science, or “Science Slices.” You can earn a badge in each branch of science by doing four activities in these categories. We also encourage participants to keep a Nature Journal to record their memories, and to express themselves creatively through writing or drawing after each activity. We recommend that each child (and parent if they’d like) write or draw in a journal after each activity, with expectations of your children that match their age (the goal is self-expression, not perfection).

Explore the Travis Elementary

join Families in Nature

It is our vision to inspire all families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists. Becoming a member of Families in Nature will give your family the opportunity to have adventures in nature, experience field science, develop as youth conservation leaders, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Memberships are free for everyone.

Who are we?

Families in Nature works to create opportunities for nature connection with the purpose of sparking a deep love and desire to protect, conserve and restore the environment. Our mission is to connect children and their families to nature and to each other through time spent learning, playing, and volunteering outdoors. It is our vision to inspire ALL families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists.

SPARK’s mission is to work with public schools to develop their playgrounds into community parks. SPARK has built 200+ community parks in 17 different school districts throughout the Houston area. Each park is designed based on ideas and needs of the school and surrounding neighborhoods. While all of the parks are different, a typical park consists of modular playground equipment, a walking trail, benches, picnic tables, trees, an outdoor classroom, and a public art component.