Can I Make A Difference To Help The Earth?

Can I Make a Difference to Help the Earth? - by: Heather Hadden
Posted on 02/11/2020
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The students in Grade One at NWE are learning that the answer is “Yes!  I can!”  For the past several years, on October 31st, the Grade One students celebrate “Bat Day!”.  For the entire day, they participate in learning centers and activities to learn about bats and how these unique creatures are critical to Alberta’s eco-systems. 

This year, we were joined by two expert presenters, Susan Holroyd from the Alberta Community Bat Program, and Stephen Symes, a wildlife biologist with Advisian.  They brought in fascinating visuals for the students to touch and see to help them acquire a deeper knowledge of why bats are important and how citizens, like them, can help in their own backyards! The students learned that there are 9 species of bats that call Alberta home and they are all insectivores – which means their diets consist exclusively of insects.  Not only can these bats eat 1200 mosquitoes an hour but they are the only flying mammal!  Because we have bats that hibernate and migrate, they are facing different challenges. 

Although not yet in Alberta, White-Nosed Syndrome is a real threat to our hibernating bat population.  Causing a fungus to grow on their snouts, this disease wakes bats from their deep hibernation sleep.  In turn, the bats do not have enough energy stores to survive the winter as there are no insects for them to eat to help them replace lost fat from waking too early. 

Our migrating bats face a different problem.  These bats tend to migrate along the Wind Farm Trail from Alberta all the way down to the southern United States.  They are attracted to tall trees to roost and mate.  The students learned that scientists are predicting that this is the reason why the bat population is being decimated by the wind farms.  Somehow, the bats eco-location misses the long rotating blades as they approach these huge ‘trees’ to roost on.  But not all is doom and gloom.  Wind Farm companies are beginning to collaborate with scientists to help these bats.  They know the bats only migrate during a certain few weeks, that bats won’t fly when winds are high or if it is raining.  By working together, there is hope for these bats. 

The students learned that they can spread the word that bats are not scary!  In fact, the world would be a scary place without bats!  Some of them have even been inspired to try to build bat boxes with their families to put up in their yards!  After learning about bats and telling their families the facts they had learned, our Grade One students also raised $174.45 to donate to the Alberta Community Bat Program to help them with their research!  By learning about the environment around us, building our knowledge, by taking action through teaching others about the importance of nature and making good choices about how we interact with the earth, we can all make a difference!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77odL1lHk8

 

 


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