By: Miss Kresge and Miss Hoffman

Teachers click here! Students click the bat!

Introduction Your students are taking a journey through the marvelous caves, while they pretend to be bats. Along their journey, they will learn about characteristics of bats and caves through the exploration of the webquest. Why? Through this interactive webquest students will be able to rely on the prior knowledge learned throughout portions of the underground unit, while learning new information about bats and caves and the characteristics of each

Student Learning goal: Students will research basic needs of bats and characteristics of bats and caves. Learners Out of 45 students, 5 students referred to IST programs, 3 ESL students, 3 students with IEPs, 2 gifted students and 31 average students.

1. Introduce students to webquest. 2. Explain task. 3. Hand out student notebooks 4. Show students how to fill in worksheets. 5. Have students begin webquest. 6. Check notebooks after every turn on the webquest for completion of math problems and writing prompts and grade accordingly. 7. Upon student completion, introduce final writing prompt and explain the need to edit the piece before handing it in.

1.5.3 B &F C A A

FOR BATS: aching_tools_exciting_kids_activities online.org/kids/Facts/Mammals/bats.htm fe/bats.php#

FOR CAVES: plates1.html

/cave Google images for the images

1. Choose 1 of the 5 topics to research. 2. Read the information on your topic. 3. Take notes with the worksheets in your folder. 4. When you finish with one topic, select a different topic and begin again. Make sure to use your note worksheets. 5. Make sure to do all 5 topics! 6. Have Fun and Good Luck! Click the arrow to begin your journey!

Welcome to the cave! You have just become a bat and need to make it safely through the cave while learning about your surroundings. Using your newly found bat abilities, you must now find out how to survive as a bat. You must find something to eat, a place in the cave for shelter, and how to use echolocation. Good Luck, see you on the outside!

Finding shelter inside the cave! Your new bat senses! Finding Food Explore how the cave was made! Click HERE when you finished all 5 areas!HERE The two kinds of bats!

There are over 900 different species of bats ! They make up one fifth of the world's mammals. Bats live all over the world, from the United States to Australia except for in the coldest parts. Bats are grouped into two main groups -- the large fruit eating bats which can be called "megabats" and the smaller bats which can be called "microbats“.

Microbats eat insects, blood, fish, lizards, birds and nectar. Microbats live worldwide, except for Antarctica and most of the arctic region. Most of the world's bats are microbats. The smallest bat in the world is the from the tiny bumblebee bat. It is the size of a jellybean and weighs less than a penny. These are pictures of bumblebee bats. See how tiny they are?

Megabats include nearly 200 species and live in tropical regions. They look a lot more like land mammals which is why they're called "flying foxes". The largest megabat is the huge Bismarck flying fox! It has a wingspan as long as an average man, almost 6 feet! This is a picture of the Bismarck flying fox!

You meet some friends in the cave. There are 23 total bats in the cave of all different sizes, and 12 of them are microbats. How many of your new friends are megabats? Make sure to write the problem in your notebook and solve the problem!

Waking up, you realize that you can see but your ears are huge! Bats have very big ears and tiny eyes. While this seems funny to you as a human, as a bat you’ll need those big ears to help you hunt. “How?” you ask. Well, we can’t tell you just yet you have to learn more about your body first!

You look down at your hands and see that they are now wings! Bat wings are made of two thin layers of skin stretched over the bat's arm and fingers. Bats have a thumb and four fingers, just like you used to when you were a person! The bat's fingers are very long compared to its body. Bat wings go all the way down the side of the bat's body and partway down its legs. Now that you know what your wing is made of continue on to find out how to fly!

You just learned what your wings are made of but you don’t know how to fly! Keep reading to find out! When bats fly, they don't just flap up and down. If you watch them closely, it almost looks like they're pulling themselves through the air -- the movement is similar to the butterfly stroke in swimming. Bats use their wings for more than just flying. They can wrap their wings around insects or fruit to hold it while eating.

Bats smell, hear, taste, feel and see just like people do. The term "blind as a bat" isn't really accurate. Bats have perfectly good eyes for seeing in the daylight. The problem is, they do most of their hunting at night!

Instead of relying on their sense of sight for night-time vision, bats make rapid high-pitched squeaks called "ultrasounds". These sounds are too high for most people to hear. If these sounds hit something, they bounce back -- sort of like when you hear your echo in a mountain when you shout. The bat hears the echo and can tell where the object is. This is called "echolocation".

Bats feed at night and spend the day sleeping in caves or in tree tops. The place where a bat sleeps is called its "roost". Bats hang UPSIDE DOWN from their roosts when they sleep. Although some bats roost in groups of only one or two, for the most part bats are very sociable animals. They usually sleep together in huge groups. Some caves may be home to thousands of bats. Bats sleeping in a roost.

Within the past two nights, you were awake hunting for food for 21 hours. Last night, you know you were awake for 11 hours. How many hours did you spend looking for food the night before? Make sure to write the problem in your notebook and solve it!

You’ve been a bat for a couple hours and now you’re really hungry. But what do bats eat? Do they eat cheeseburgers and French fries? You’re not too sure but you need to find something! Click on the arrow to find your food choices.

Vampire bats are the only type of bats that drink blood. They usually only prey on cows, horses and other large mammals. They make a small bite with their razor-sharp teeth then they lick up the blood. Each bat only drinks about an ounce of blood each night. Drinking blood doesn’t really sound as tasty as a cheeseburger, click the arrow to find more bat foods. Vampire bat feeding on a cow.

There are also a number of bats who eat insects, fish, frogs and small animals. Meat eating bats fly out at night (they are "nocturnal") to hunt for their food when many of the other predators are fast asleep. Well, fish and frog sound better but you want to see all your choices before you choose. This is a bulldog bat catching a fish!

A lot of bats, including the flying fox, eat fruit. Sometimes the fruit eating bats are a pain to the orchard owners but, they play an important role in nature. The fruit bats spread the seeds of the fruit they eat! They are responsible for scattering up to 95% of the seeds needed for new trees in tropical rain forests.

If you eat 57 mosquitoes for breakfast, and 25 berries for lunch, how many pieces of food did you eat today? Make sure to write this problem in your notebook and solve it!

You have to find a place to rest in your new cave home. But you don’t know a lot about caves. Where do bats normally hang from? And what are those pointy things that hang from the ceiling and ground of a cave? You’re pretty sure you can hang from one of those pointy things to rest, but first you need to learn more about them! What ARE those hanging things? You’re not sure but they sure look comfy for your new bat body!

That was close! If you hadn’t used your echolocation you would have hit that stalactite! When water from the ceiling of the cave drips down, the minerals that were in the water stick together to form stalactites. What a close call! Hitting the stalactites in this picture would have hurt!

Oh no! Just as you avoided that stalactite you almost hit that stalagmite! When the water drops to the ground it may splash up and form stalagmites. Sometimes stalagmites continue getting larger and larger until they form large columns! Man, those stalagmites look just as painful as the stalactites. Good thing you missed them!

Man, being a bat is hard work. But here’s a tip to help you remember the difference between stalagmites and stalactites! Stalactites have a “c” like in ceiling! And they hang from the ceiling! Stalagmites have a “g” like in ground! And they come from the ground! Which ones hang from the ceiling and which ones come from the ground?

There are 14 stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling, and 23 stalagmites on the cave floor. How many stalactites and stalagmites are there altogether in the cave? Make sure to write this problem in your notebook and solve the problem!

You look around your new surroundings. You’re in a cave but as you look around you wonder how a cave could form. Caves can form in many different ways. But you, as a bat, are only going to learn about three. Caves can be made from lava, water and the shifting of tectonic plates.

Lava erupting from a volcano can also form caves. As the surface flow cools rapidly and the hot, molten lava below flows away. Gas pockets in lava may also leave caves. Lava caves look cool, but you’re worried your bat wings will get burned. Keep reading about caves to find out other ways. This is a picture of a lava made cave!

Some caves are formed by ocean waves hitting against the base of a rock cliff. After a long time, the cracks in the rock become tunnels, and the tunnels get bigger to become sea caves. You look around. Sea caves sound nice but there’s no water where you’re at. Keep reading! This is a picture of a sea cave.

Caves are also made through the tectonic movement of rock formations. This means that when the plates that are under the Earth’s crust move, or shift, they sometimes crash together. When they do that, sometimes rocks form things such as caves. You’re bat senses are tingling. This is definitely the type of cave you’re in.

One night, you flew 34 miles to visit a cave that was made by lava, and then you flew 34 miles back home. How many miles did you fly altogether to visit the lava cave? Make sure to write the problem in your notebook and solve it!

CONGRATULATIONS! You did it! You were able to find your food, find a great place to keep safe and learn how to use all of your bat abilities! You made it to the end of the cave and became the best bat possible!