Larrakeyah Primary School has been recognised in The Educator’s 5 Star Sustainable Program award, which highlights schools leading the charge in sustainable education. Among our school programs, the groundbreaking Bat Scram project impressed judges and earned our school a top spot.
We are really excited here at Larrakeyah Primary School because we have been awarded one of the 5 Star Best Sustainable Schools for 2023. The reason why we won this award was because of our Bat Scram project.
The sustainable mission of the project was to protect and sustain the mango industry by redirecting bats to an alternative food source, thus protecting the bat species and recognising their important role in the ecosystem and for biodiversity.
The creation Bat Scram, the project, all occurred due to students in Year 5 and 6 showing a particular interest in their digital technologies lessons. We knew that these students needed to be extended further and therefore created a project where they could work and solve a real life problem.
Mango farms are currently trying to protect their crops by using barbed wire fences or netting over their mango trees, which are both harmful and expensive solutions. They unintentionally harm bats in order to protect produce. It was reported to us by Wildcare rescuers that many bats have died or been harmed during this process.
We found our students were sympathetic to both the bats and mango farmer’s situation and collaborated with one another to come up with the design concept Bat Scram a robot powered by solar energy that uses sound and light to scare away bats.
They ideated solutions and created prototypes. They incorporated their ideas into one and developed a life size model that we successfully tested in farm and received positive feedback from farmers.
Developing our students and giving them opportunities to make changes in our world through innovative designs gives us hope for our future. Students have investigated cause and effect, understanding that the loss of one environment and food source will push wildlife to another location to meet their needs. Students interacted with the design thinking model so positively. All students were able to empathise with the problem. Having shared feelings and putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes means students are more inclined to connect to a problem and solve it to a high degree.
The project has resulted in students being more adept at identifying issues in their own community and developing strategies for positive transformations.
