Bat Smarts: Tech researcher uses study of nocturnal critters to help put fun back into science for Northridge grade-schoolers

The schoolchildren pronounce the scientific names of the creatures with ease, as if they are repeating the name of a close friend or a family member rather than many-syllabled Latin binomens.

"Rhinolophus stheno," 10-year-old Carissa Rendon pronounces, fluidly.

"They're very furry," pony-tailed Rendon continues, confidently. "They eat insects. They scoop up insects with their tail."

At North Ridge Elementary, a growing public school on the outskirts of Lubbock, a gaggle of bubbly fourth- and fifth-graders have been studying a group of winged night creatures with university researchers since January.

Their studies, which wrapped up at the end of March, are part of a pilot program led by Texas Tech bat researcher Tigga Kingston, who casts the program as a way to revive science in U.S. schools and hopes to obtain funding to try it on a larger scale.

Studies show American students' performance in science is slipping behind their peers in other countries, and Kingston and her colleagues have chosen a critical age group to focus on.

At grade four, just two countries, Singapore and Chinese Taipei, had higher percentages of students performing at or above the international science benchmark than the United States, according to a 2007 study from the National Center for Education Statistics. By grade eight, six countries had higher percentages: Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Japan, England, Korea and Hungary.

"(We've) got to go all the way back to the very beginning and catch the kids when they're still excited and still can be enthused about the science," says Kingston, an assistant professor who's been studying bats in Malaysia since 1994.

"As a kid," said Kingston, 41, "I wish I'd known that science wasn't just, you know, sitting around with a lab coat on and making some chemicals explode."

Her program, called the Malaysian Bat Education Adventure, capitalizes on the endless curiosity of children, the ever-expanding reach of technology and the mystery of bats, animals Kingston says are greatly threatened by deforestation and habitat loss.

About 250 students at Northridge followed Kingston and her team as they studied insectivorous bat diversity in Malaysia's Krau Wildlife Reserve. They watched videos of the team traipsing through dark forests to collect bats from nets and they recorded data on the bats as the team did. Each student was assigned a bat species to follow.

Dora Herrera, who teaches fourth grade at Northridge, said her students were excited to be part of the bat project, the first of its kind to be tried at the school. Tech paid for the project.

Kingston won a grant last year from the office of the vice president for research, which was searching for a project to back that researched how learning occurs.

"I think we focus too much on test-taking skills, and we take the fun out of learning," said Herrera, who's been teaching for 18 years.

"I just wish people in Washington could see this," she said.

Her students grew to love bats that could be extinct by the time their children are grown.

By the end of this century, 20 percent of Southeast Asia's bat species may become extinct, Kingston says. The loss could cripple the ecosystem and economy of the region, she says. Fruit-eating bats disperse seeds that replenish forests and pollinate hundreds of plants. Insect-eating bats help control bug populations that can devastate crops.

Northridge fourth- and fifth-graders were on the edge of their seats when Kingston came to the school on a recent morning to wrap up the study.

"Did you enjoy learning about bats?" she asked the students who had assembled in the school's cafeteria, filling about a third of the room.

"Yes," they shouted in unison.

Next, a test of the students' "bat smarts," Kingston informed. Students were eager to answer the professor's questions, extending their hands high in the air and jumping from their seats to be noticed. They knew how many fingers' bats have (five), what kind of animals they are (mammals), could name a species when given a description (like Kingston's favorite, the yellow-nosed, yellow-eared Rhinolophus trifoliatus).

After the bat quiz, it was the students turn to ask Kingston questions. They thought of lots of ways to ask Kingston about her favorite and least favorite bats. But some were more serious, like the girl who stumped Kingston when she asked whether the team captured more male or female bats in Malaysia.

"I don't know," Kingston acknowledged, saying she'd have to search for the correct answer in her data.

"Can I come with you to Malaysia?" another student asked.

"If you keep studying hard and come to Texas Tech, then one of these days you can come to Malaysia with me," Kingston answered.

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OUR KIDS/Tech researcher uses study of nocturnal critters to help put fun back into science for Northridge grade-schoolers

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