Bat Education Resources

The following are teacher resources that align with Foundation Year to Year 10 disciplines of the Australian Curriculum. These educational resources provide detailed, teacher-friendly discipline content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for all discipline areas (Maths, English, Science, Humanities and the Social Sciences).The goal of these resources are to help teachers, who are already competent, experienced and skilled in teaching, develop the knowledge and confidence to increase awareness and build capacity of communities to understand and effectively live with local Microbats and Flying Foxes (FF), including the nationally vulnerable Grey-Headed Flying Fox (GHFF).

The teaching resources all offer student-centred, constructivist based teaching suggestions and have been developed by teachers and overseen by a University academic who specialises in the teaching and learning of Science.

Even though school based education is identified as a key factor in building community capacity, there are few online educational resources promoting the teaching and learning of bats. Those that are available, rarely link to all discipline areas within the Australian Curriculum. Bats Qld believes that any formal education
teaching resources must be directly linked to the National Australian Curriculum.

This resource provides teacher and student friendly lesson suggestions and resources that directly link to the Australian Curriculum. This teaching resource mobilises expertise and knowledge of Flying Foxes and Microbats in relation to the latest Scientific and Statistical information and Health and Safety information. It improves awareness and understanding of the changing migratory paths of bats, and offers support to Scientists’ belief that Australian forests will only survive Climate Change with the help of Flying Foxes. Because of their importance in Australia’s ecosystems, and general misunderstandings within the populous, it is imperative that people are informed and well educated around Flying Foxes so they can support the aim of finding “the balance between reducing conflict associated with Flying Foxes roosting in urban areas, and the conservation and welfare of these important native species”.

Project Leader and Curriculum Developer: Dr. Alison Sammel

Please direct questions and feedback to education@batsqld.org.au

Bats Qld would like to thank the creative teachers who dedicated their precious time to developing the following teaching suggestions. We appreciate the hundreds of hours they have given this project and respect the imaginative, insightful and fun learning experiences they have created for every subject of the Australian Curriculum from Foundation Year to Year 10.
Thank you Merima Celahmetovic, Cherise Davis, Bonnie Gibson, Tara Hart and Carolyn Keepa.
You are exceptional educators!

Bats Qld would like to thank the Gold Coast City Council for supporting this project.