As a teacher and consultant working within the STEM subjects, I am acutely aware of two areas which are big news in education; those of careers and of ensuring we provide stretch and challenge, particularly that our most able reach the top grades.
Unfortunately, in a packed and busy curriculum, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. In the midst of planning lessons and marking, it can be difficult to shoe-horn in the additional time needed to research and deliver these effectively.
Over this series of blogs, I will be doing some of this work for you. By providing links and articles which provide lesson ideas and material; hopefully providing the fuel to allow you to target these key areas.
Today’s blog will focus on work being carried out in various Universities into the amazing senses of animals. I read this in the 24 July 2021 issue of New Scientist and it is based around research taken from Secret Worlds: The extraordinary senses of animals by Martin Stevens; Oxford University Press.
We are familiar with the ability of bats to echolocate using ultrasound but there is so much science around this that links so well to GCSE content on ultrasound as well as the biology of food webs / predator-prey relationships. Bats are able to ‘distinguish between the wing cases and body of a beetle and the wings of a moth’. Stevens talks about how ‘Rather than seeing countless species all around us, each with every single one of their senses being a pinnacle of what is possible, we instead observe that evolution and development has honed these senses that the animal needs most, and scaled back on the others’. Wouldn’t that make a great introduction for a lesson on either evolution or the nervous system?!
The article discusses the huge expense to the animal, in terms of energy usage, in maintaining these extreme senses; the blowfly, at rest, uses a tenth of its energy in maintaining photoreceptors in its eyes and associated nerve cells. Another great example linked to energy is around energy conservation. The nocturnal ogre-faced spider has such large and sensitive eyes that it breaks down its photoreceptors and membranes during the day and regenerates them at night as that is more energy-efficient. I can imagine some great lessons linked to both energy conservation in animals and also to the principles of processes such as HE power.
As educators, we are aware of the importance of linking together subjects and this topic lends itself well to bringing together ideas about both physics and biology. Examples such as vampire bats who use infrared thermal receptors to select blood vessels to bite into, marine species which use their ability to detect tiny amounts of electricity to allow them to hunt and animals who use magnetic fields to navigate, all make for exciting themes around which to base lessons.
Within STEM learning we run a number of courses linked to both careers in science and the science topics discussed above. If you are interested, please visit our web pages to find out more, or get in touch if you would like us to deliver them in your school j.elmer@stem.org.uk
Within STEM learning we run a number of courses linked to both careers in science and the science topics discussed above. If you are interested, please visit our web pages to find out more, or get in touch if you would like us to deliver them in your school j.elmer@stem.org.uk
www.stem.org.uk
The following links have further information on the above as well as on careers associated with this research:
The Most Fascinating Animal Senses In The World (animalwised.com)Amazon.com: Secret Worlds: The extraordinary senses of animals: 9780198813675: Stevens, Martin: BooksNew Scientist | Science news and science articles from New ScientistResearch scientist | Explore careers | National Careers ServiceBiologist | Explore careers | National Careers Service