Nothing Says “Halloween” Like Teaching Local Schoolchildren About Bats!

When an opportunity comes up to present to young local schoolchildren about bats, members of our Ecological Sciences Practice like to seize that chance. “Bat talks” are especially popular around Halloween, naturally. Dan Maltese, a Senior Principal and our corporate Ecological Sciences Practice Lead, gave a bat presentation to all of Carnegie Elementary School in Pittsburgh—more than 400 kids! He talked about bats, critters, and careers in STEM. At another bat talk, Dan spoke with a kindergarten class at St. Joseph’s in Pittsburgh about what makes bats special and other animal adaptations. After Dan felt like he made an impact on these young minds, one child spoke up: “When is Batman coming?”

Elsewhere in Pittsburgh, Jackie and Craig Rockey assisted with the Celebrate Autumn—All About Bats event held at Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. They showed visitors their bat surveying gear and shared bat-related photos. Their role for the “Meet a Bat Biologist” portion of the event was to describe what it’s like to be a bat biologist and to provide details on the diversity and ecology of bats. They set up a mist-net and harp trap to demonstrate how they typically capture bats, and they also had a radio, transmitters, and an antennae on hand to demonstrate how to perform telemetry surveys.

Kids are the world’s future. We relish such one-of-a-kind opportunities to connect with young minds and nurture interest in our area’s ecology!