This page last updated January 15, 2007
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When I was a graduate student at Ohio State, our lab would often get invited to give presentations to local schools and other interested groups. We would come in, give a talk that lasted between 30 minutes and an hour, and give the students time to ask us questions about the animals and what our lab did. We gave talks to groups that ranged from pre-school to high school in age, Boy Scout troops, conservation societies, etc. The talks were adjusted to fit the audience, but included general bat information, lots of cool bat pictures, and as much bat information as we could cram into the time allotted! Here is a picture from the visit the lab did to Bluffsview Elementary school in Worthington, Ohio:
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Here I am talking to the class - don't they look enthralled? ;) |
Since I've arrived in Georgia, I've been wanting to continue giving these talks since they are always a lot of fun. October was usually the time with the highest demand, but I'm willing to talk about bats any time of the year! If you're interested in having me talk about bats to your class or group, contact me and we'll try to arrange something. I can be reached by email (stephenburnett@mail.clayton.edu) or by phone at 678-466-4774.
The actual talks can be specialized to address the needs of your group. I have presented to groups ranging form pre-K up to adults, so I'm pretty flexible. The talks generally include a Powerpoint presentation showing bat pictures and teaching about bat ecology, behavior, and conservation. I also bring some demonstration devices with me. I have several "bat detectors" that allow me to show how we can use them to hear sounds that human ears can't detect. I also bring some bats that were stuffed by a taxidermist so that they can see them up close. I also generally bring handouts of various sorts that provide more information and fun activities. Lastly, in small groups I'm able to use a special device that lets a member of the audience pretend to be a bat themselves. Of course, there are always other options - please contact me for more information.
I have given dozens of these presentations over the last few years, so I have stopped listing them here to keep the page from being unreadable. In addition, most of them have been given at elementary schools, so they weren't open to the public. In the future, as I schedule presentations that are open to the public, I will list them on this page so that you are able to get more information.
Since most of these presentations are to school children, I've put together a couple of sheets of bat activities that I like to hand out to the children. (Some of these are taken from the web page of the Basically Bats Conservation Society, and the rest are from the Mini Page). I also have a handout with some general bat facts. Both of these handouts are here in Adobe PDF format.
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To learn more, return to my main page and click on the links...
