Script: Hello, acousticians! Thank you for helping us to learn about the ways people and animals use sound to learn about the world around them. Today, you’ll be learning more about echolocation and some of the animals that use this special capability to help them survive. Do you remember what echolocation means? (wait for student response) That’s right! Echolocation is the process of identifying the location of objects by reflected sound–and sonar is a technology that was inspired by the echolocation used by animals. Let’s do a quick activity to remind ourselves how echolocation works.
Script: In the last activity, you experienced echolocation by engaging in an activity with a partner. Typically, humans cannot echolocate to the ability of animals, but there are some instances where a person who lacks another sense (someone who is blind) does learn to echolocate to create a mental picture of their surroundings. Today, we’ll do a similar activity as a whole class. You’ll all wear blindfolds as I drop a pencil in different locations around the classroom. I’m going to try and be very quiet and sneaky as I move around the classroom. When you think you know the location of the sound, point to it. Wait for me to say, “one, two, three, see!” before removing your blindfold.
Students will learn about unique facts of animals that use echolocation..
Materials: for the class
5 min Script: In the last lesson, we learned about echolocation and how people, inspired by echolocation, have created and use sonar to “see” hard to reach places. Today, you’ll learn about different animals that use echolocation. First, you’ll learn about each animal by rotating around the classroom in small groups, and after that we'll play a game where you’ll select one animal to play.
30 min Group students and dismiss them by groups to each Animal Echolocation page. Consider grouping students with varied reading abilities together so readers can support non-readers in learning about each animal. Rotate student groups every~5 minutes until all students have read each Animal Echolocation page.
Students will use what they’ve learned about the different animals that use echolocation to select an animal character and play through a role-play style game.
5 min Script: Now that we’ve learned about different animals that use echolocation, you’ll put these animal powers to the test. In this game, you’ll pick 1 animal to play. Everyone will start at this line, and as you listen to the different scenarios, your selected animal will either take steps forward, stay where you are, or take steps backward. We’ll keep playing until 1 animal crosses the finish line first. (Note, you can continue to play using additional scenarios until all animals have crossed the finish line.)
20 min Have students each select an animal card and stand at the start line. Read through the various scenarios:
TIP: You can continue the game with more prompts created by yourself and your students based on the echolocation facts for each animal.
10 min Gather students together once the game is done. Have students turn and talk using the following questions:
10 min Watch: Echolocation: The Evolution of a Superpower (www.youtube.com/@animalogic)
10 min Discuss:
Have students select one the animals they learned about that uses echolocation to write a 3 part “day in the life” journal entry. Based on the animal’s behavior, students should write about what that animal is doing in the morning, during the day, and at night, and how it uses or does not use echolocation at those different times of day.
