Learning With Nature Director Sam Stier was invited to give a workshop at this year’s International Bat Research Conference, held in Cairns, Australia, using bats as a case study for Nature-enriched school teaching.
The International Bat Research Conference is the world’s preeminent bat research conference, convening every few years to bring together people from around the world engaged in bat research, conservation, and education work. Mr. Stier’s workshop began by introducing the concept of Nature-enriched school teaching (NEST), a strategy The Center for Learning With Nature has been developing that simultaneously improves academic engagement while building connections between students and the natural world in classroom settings (where students spend a great deal of their childhood) by using engaging Nature-related information to provide context and examples in standard school topics.
Mr. Stier used geometric characteristics of bat wings as an example of NEST, leading workshop participants in a hands-on activity to compare how different shapes handle tensile forces. To see these physical strains on material in real-time, shapes were modeled in specific types of plastic and then observed under stress using polarized filters in sunglasses and cell phone screens. Structural engineers use the same technique (i.e., the photoelastic effect). The curves found in bat wings perform exceptionally well under tensile strains, far better than right angles or the quarter circle fillets used by many engineers.
(By the way, if this activity reminds anyone of the Tutelage of Trees activity in the middle/high school version of Engineering Inspired by Nature, that’s because it should! The curves found at the base of many trees is the same curve found in various places along the wings of bats.)
The well-attended workshop included participants from around the world, including the head of the IUCN bat specialist group, as well as representatives from the United States Geological Survey, Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation Organization, the National Institute for Amazonian Research, New Zealand Department of Conservation, the Auckland Government Council; faculty and staff from Arizona State University, the University of Melbourne, University of Adelaide, University of Illinois, UKM Malaysia; and others.
Many thanks to the International Bat Research Conference, Wildlife Conservation Society’s Conservation Leadership Programme, and the Andersen Air Force Base’s Bat Monitoring Program for making this workshop possible.
