Batty About Science

Introduction

Bats are not blind, but for most bats, their sense of hearing is better than their sense of sight. Bats use echolocation (a type of sonar that allows them to emit a very loud, high-pitched sound and then interpret the echoes) to locate their prey and capture it.

Bats are not “mice with wings.” They belong to their own group, called chiroptera, which means hand-wing. They are the only mammals that really fly! (Flying squirrels don’t fly; they glide.)

Objectives

In this activity, you will

• You will learn how bats sense their prey by pretending that the Go! Motion is a bat and that you are its prey.
• Discover how this movement is graphically represented.

Sensors and Equipment

This experiment features the following Vernier sensors and equipment.

Option 1

Option 2

Additional Requirements

You may also need an interface and software for data collection. What do I need for data collection?