Revision of Multimedia Storyline

by Ginger Butcher
6/11/97

Summary

Our proposed story revision intends to provide a base on which to build a beneficial interactive web site. The story will introduce educational themes for both Remote Sensing Technology (NASA) and NatureMapping (BRD). The establishment of a scientifically valid storyline which outlines the educational content for both disciplines is necessary to begin development of a storyboard and web site diagram. The story revision presented here attempts to satisfy requirements, communicated thus far, for both NASA and BRD. If BRD requires coverage of any additional content, an outline or detailed description of such content relating to their discipline (e.g. biodiversity) is needed. An approved storyline and list of required content are necessary for advancement to the next stage of development.

Considerable research has been applied to the selection of a geographic region regarding the bat species selected as the main character in the interactive story. A smaller region with contiguous remote sensing coverage is required to incorporate interactivity and uphold scientific accuracy. Taking into account our available remote sensing data and preliminary research of the Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) and the Lesser Long-nosed Bat (Leptonycteris curasoae), we have selected Arizona as a beneficial geographic location. Only minor story revisions are required to utilize BRD's original species selection while retaining an educational emphasis on conserving habitats along a migration path.

The architecture of this educational web site will include an interactive story, lesson modules and lesson plans. The interactive story is the foundation on which the lesson modules will be linked. Lesson modules are self-contained lessons which reinforce material presented in the story. Lesson plans will be provided to assist teachers with integrating the concepts into the classroom. Links to lesson modules will be available outside of the interactive story thus providing teachers with direct access to the lessons without navigating the story. This architecture incorporates interactivity for students while maintaining functionality for teachers.

The story revision is about a baby Big Brown Bat born in a coniferous forest in northern Arizona. At the beginning of the bat's migration, a forest fire separates the young bat from his mother. The young bat needs help in his journey to find his mother. The interactivity portion allows the student to navigate the young bat. Throughout their journey, the bat and the student are exposed to a variety of habitats and species of bats. Thus, the journey becomes the vehicle to teach the characteristics of different habitats, and their importance to bats, plants, and humans. The end of the story will reunite mother and son in southern Arizona.

Selection of geographic location and species research

To satisfy interactivity and remote sensing requirements, research was conducted on the storyline presented by BRD. Remotely sensed images put together in a contiguous fashion are the basis for our interface. This interactive architecture requires complete data coverage to satisfy scientific accuracy. Selection of a large region such as the southwestern United States to Central America would pose an area too vast for production on the WWW. Taking into account our available remote sensing data and preliminary research of the Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) and the Lesser Long-nosed Bat (Leptonycteris curasoae) , we have selected Arizona as the geographic location of the story. This selection requires only minor storyline changes while maintaining BRD's original species selection of the Big Brown Bat as the main character.

Regarding the suggested use of the Hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), NASA's education consultants disagree, stressing inappropriateness for the target age group. They suggest that the name is open to possible ridicule and would possibly lessen the seriousness of the concepts. In addition, Barbara French, biologist at BCI (Bat Conservation International), strongly recommends using a bat more characteristic of other North American bats. She stresses the ability to teach more about bats common to our region. E. fuscus has similar distribution to the L. cinereus within the contiguous United States (Kurta and Baker 1990). Barbara French noted that even with similar distribution, the E. fuscus is more common thoughout the country than the L. cinereus. Choosing a common bat would support local interest among students and increase the chance of actual sightings. This may enhance students' NatureMapping experiences. Student involvement with the preservation of bat habitats may also be enhanced by building bat houses to attract bats. Such a feature would be limited with the selection of the L. cinereus since this species does not roost in artificial habitats (French 1997). In light of these points, we disagree with the suggestion to change the main character species.

Regarding the focus on habitats along a migration path, the frugivore L. curasoae would be a perfect candidate. L. curasoae migrates along the nectar corridor from southern Arizona to Central America (Fleming 1991). The multi-layer capability of the WWW will allow for greater focus on this bat whose migration path is endangered by the destruction of agave cactus to make bootleg tequila (Fleming 1991). An animation sequence describing the migration path along a seasonal flowering of cactus could provide a fantastic visual to stress the fragile nature of this bat's migration path. Thus, a lesson could stress the importance of preserving habitats along a migration path through an encounter with a bat other than the main character.

Arizona has one of the highest bat species count in the United States (French 1997), making Arizona an excellent location from which to introduce different bat species throughout the story. Traveling from forested highlands to desert scrub, the bat can encounter various habitats and the different species of bats that inhabit them. Students can learn about the relationship of plants and animals and their roles in the ecology of a habitat. Students can also learn about what views from space can reveal about these habitats. As the geographical location, Arizona offers a variety of habitats, a variety of bat species, a relatively small geographic location, and sufficient availability of remote sensing data.

Storyline revision

The proposed storyline revision has a Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) migrating from northern Arizona to its hibernaculum in southern Arizona, encountering a variety of species and habitats along the way. Since E. fuscus is a generalist, it shows no preference for over-water versus over-land sites, edge versus non-edge habitats, or urban versus rural environments (Kurta and Baker 1990). Therefore, this bat is a useful vehicle to introduce different habitats into the story. E. fuscus are found in northern Arizona in the summer (French 1997) and coniferous trees for such summer roosting sites can be found in northern Arizona (e.g. near Flagstaff, AZ). The story will begin with a nursery colony roosting in a hollow tree. Since E. fuscus is found in southern Arizona in the winter (French 1997), the colony will migrate to southern Arizona near the Sonoran Desert. E. fuscus have been reported in caves and abandoned mines in southern Arizona (French 1997). We have sufficient remote sensing data to cover a migration path from northern to southern Arizona.

The interactivity plot is based upon the separation of the mother bat and baby bat. E. fuscus typically produces two young in the eastern regions of U.S. and only one offspring from the Rocky Mountains westward (Nowak 1994). Also, bat pups of the E. fuscus can fly at the age of 18-35 days (Fenton 1992) at which point they are 90 percent of their adult size (Nowak 1994). Rapid growth is necessary because young bats need adult sized wings to fly (Barbour and Davis 1969). Therefore, it is possible for a young bat to migrate on its own at a young age (approx. 3 months).

The student interacts with the program by helping the young bat migrate. The interface includes a general map of Arizona. This map will trace their progress as they travel. A larger screen will reveal their current location. Locations are depicted as remote sensed images adjacent to one another in a virtual space. Movement between locations is controlled by a complex architecture of HTML pages. The student will need to click on a "rolloverÓ image to learn additional information. Only after the student investigates, do the navigation tools appear thus producing a maze like interface. The "rollover" images will link to a new page introducing a concept. The pages will include views such as a photo of a birds roosting in a saguaro cactus or aerial views showing habitats like a farm or a city's glow at night. Also on this page, the appropriate lesson links will be available or additional storyline is executed (e.g. encounter with the frugivore). After investigating the lesson links, the student returns to the location screen. The navigation tools are now available and the student can continue through the story.

During their journey they will encounter many different habitats between northern and southern Arizona. The young bat may even seek roost in a hollow saguaro cactus (French 1997) and meet up with a fruigivore bat pollinating the cactus. The need for E. fuscus and another bat species to migrate together is not essential to illustrate two bats meeting and learning about one another. At the end of the story, the young bat is now a fully grown male bat. E. fuscus males can reach maturity by their first autumn (Kurta and Baker 1990). Our main character is reunited with his mother at their hibernation site in southern Arizona.

While navigating the baby bat, the student can conduct a NatureMapping exercise. With a map printout the student can map locations of different habitats. These areas, discerned from space, serve as a map resource for NatureMapping. The student can use an inventory printout to record the number of bats encountered along the way. The map reveals areas where a suitable habitat was scarce while the inventory will reveal distributions of bats. NatureMapping is introduced and linked to relevant lessons.

Bat Story: Intro Sequence

This storyline presents an educational framework based on scientific accuracy and educational concepts. After its approval, education consultants will reword it for age appropriateness. Appropriate supporting research in italic; examples of hyperlinked information underlined.

Early Spring, in a hollow tree near Flagstaff Arizona, a colony of mother bats waiting for birth.

For North America, Banfield (1974) wrote that E. fuscus was originally a forest dweller, using hollow trees for roosting during warmer months and hibernating in caves in the winter. The females of the E. fuscus form maternity colonies to rear young, and at this time the males roost alone or in small groups (Nowak 1994). E. fuscus is found in northern Arizona in the summer (French 1997).

On a cool summer eve in June, a baby bat pup is born to a mother Big Brown Bat. His mother is hanging upside down in the hollow tree. Using his clawed thumbs the baby bat pup hangs onto his mother to keep from falling. The baby bat has arms that are similar to the arms and hands of a human. He has claws instead of fingernails. Between each one of his fingers he has folds of skin. The baby bat also has folds of skin over very short legs and feet. The skin will help the baby bat fly. He has a small furry body which his mother teaches him how to keep clean. He has big ears to hear his mother's calls. Later these ears will help him catch food.

In northern temperate regions the young of Eptesicus are usually born from April through July. The species E. fuscus usually has a single young in the Rocky Mountains and westward, and twins in that part of its range east of the Rockies (Nowak 1994). Bat pups are usually 20% of the mother's weight (Fenton 1992). A newborn bat's thumbs and hind feet are virtually adult size to cling to its mother or to a roost (Fenton 1992).

In the evening, the mother bat tells her baby to hang on tight. The mother flys out of the roost to catch bugs to eat.

Bats nurse their young until they are almost adult size because the bat is not capable of feeding on their own until their wings have approached adult dimensions (Kurta and Baker 1990). E. fuscus west of the Rockies typically have one pup and have been recorded taking their offspring with them foraging (Barbour and Davis 1969).

One night, the mother bat leaves baby bat so that she can find bugs to eat. She tells him that he has gotten too heavy to carry but that he is not old enough to fly. The baby is left behind with the other baby bats in the nursery colony. Clutching the walls of the tree with their hind legs, the baby bats huddle together to stay warm. The babies begin calling for their mothers to return. When his mother returns, she listens for her baby's calls and responds with an ultrasonic (link to definition) chirp. She licks her baby's face to make sure that he is her pup, then feeds him milk.

Mothers forage for short periods, usually under an hour when they leave their young behind. Mothers give milk only to their own pup (Barbour and Davis 1969). The isolation call is the most prominent of infant vocalization and the call is emitted initially when the young bat is separated from its mother. The call is emitted less frequently as the bat develops (Kurta and Baker 1990).

One evening when the young bat wakes up, his mother says it is time to fly and catch food on his own. Although he is a little frightened, he lets go of his mother and tries to fly. He flaps and flaps his wings, faster and faster, and slowly, he stops falling and begins to fly. He starts to get tired because it took so much energy to keep his wings flapping, and starts to get hot. Then his mother tells him it is time to learn how to catch breakfast.

Pup growth is rapid. E. fuscus first begin flying at 18 - 35 days (Kurta and Baker 1990).

The colony of baby and mother bats fly outside the hollow tree squeaking with excitement. It is time to find food and they fly off into the darkness to find some tasty beetles. With her baby at her wing, she catches beetles in her wings and scoops them into her mouth. Baby bat practices using echolocation (link to definition and beetle game). All the babies are having fun eating the plentiful supply of beetles that night.

E. fuscus consume 50%-100% of their body mass in insects every night and have been observed catching 5 to 20 insects a minute. They begin hunting about 18 minutes after sundown and spend about 90 minutes a night foraging. E. fuscus feed mainly on beetles, but at other times they eat insects such as caddis flies, moths, flies and mayflies. E. fuscus hunt in a variety of habitats, sometimes searching for insects over woodlands, fields or bodies of water. They also hunt in park lands in cities through out their range. E. fuscus usually fly about 5 km away from the colony to forage (Fenton 1992).

Mother bat teaches baby bat what is means to be a bat. They sleep during the day and come out to find food at night. Mother teaches baby about predators (definition and lesson about ecology - producers, consumers and food web). Baby bat must watch out for owls, grackles, long-tailed weasels, house cats and rats (Kurta and Baker 1990).

The weather turns cooler and the mother says to the young bat that it's time to leave. The mother bat explains what it means to migrate (link to definition). As they start on their journey, a forest fire separates the mother and her young bat. The young bat needs help to find his mother. All he knows is what his mother told him about migrating. His mother told him stories of an abandoned mine south near the desert.

Bat Story: Interactivity Sequence

The student is provided with an interface to help navigate the young bat. During their journey, they will encounter a variety of habitats and situations with links to appropriate educational content and lessons. The student progresses through this virtual maze one screen at a time, one location at a time. The student will navigate the young bat toward his winter home. The end of the story would reunite the mother and son.

Locations throughout the migration journey allow for the incorporation of educational concepts. All desired content must be represented to guarantee the integration in the final program. Listed below are some suggested educational content with supporting storyline. "RS" represents content relating to Remote Sensing Technology. "NM" represents suggested content relating to NatureMapping and biodiversity. Locations represented in no particular order.

• Coniferous forest - home RS: Identification of mountains and forest in satellite image NM: Identification of habitat

• A city where the lights from the traffic attract bugs
  RS: Glow of city light (aerial image)
  NM: Ability of some species and inability of other species to adapt to urban habitats
  

• Desert scrub habitat where a frugivore is pollinating cactus
  RS: Identification of desert area
  NM: Preservation of habitats along migration path
  

• Lack of bugs due to inclement weather
  RS: Remote sensing is also used to track weather patterns
  NM: Bat's ability to sense air pressure, conserve energy
  

• An abandoned mine that has been backfilled
  RS: Remote Sensing and geology, identifying resources
  NM: Bats for Mines project
  

• Forest Fire
  RS: Assessment of forest fire devastation
  NM: A forest fire's role in the ecosystem
  

• Flash flooding
  RS: Benefits from mapping flood damage (i.e. disaster relief)
  NM: Ability of animals to adapt to disaster
  

• A farm with bat boxes and lots of insects
  RS: Identify patterns of irrigated farm in the desert
  NM: How bats help humans, bat's role in the ecosystem
  

• A farm that uses pesticides and no insects
  RS: Remote sensing can help farmers limit their use of pesticide (IR)
  NM: Dangers of pesticides in the ecosystem
  

• Other Big Brown Bats who live in the city
  RS: Identification of Urban areas in satellite image
  NM: Bats and people...facts about bats and how not to handle them
  

• Hoary Bats in a deciduous forest
  RS: Seasonal differences viewed with remote sensing
  NM: Introduce characteristics of different bat species
  

• Rocky desert cliffs where Spotted Bats are roosting
  RS: Identification of land features
  NM: Introduce characteristics of different bat species
  

Summary

This storyline integrates the two disciplines of remote sensing and NatureMapping while offering an interactive structure. The student is drawn into the story to help the baby bat. The mother bat assists in teaching the student about bats through rearing her baby bat. The migration of the Big Brown Bat acts as a vehicle to teach about a variety of habitats. The introduction of different bat species can assist in the emphasis on preservation of biodiversity. Lessons relating to educational concepts are introduced throughout the migration journey. In addition, the overall design illustrates remote sensing and provides an exercise in NatureMapping. Functionality for teachers is maintained by providing a "teachers edition pageÓ with lesson plans and links to lesson modules. Finally, the story provides a foundation stressing the importance of biodiversity by incorporating the educational content, communicated thus far, from both NASA and BRD.

Action Plan

With the approval of the storyline and a listing of content, a site diagram and storyboard will be developed. The site diagram will diagram the interactivity and map the location of all the desired content with related links. From the site diagram, buttons for the interface will be designed for each possible content or event. The basic framework of the site is coded using dummy-graphics while the remote sensing images are generated, sliced, and prepared for the web. The completion of the site design and coding of initial interactivity should encompass two months with one assistant available for HTML coding. An additional month is required for testing and debugging.

At the same time, work can start on assembling lesson plans and scripting the lesson modules. Following the development of the interactive story will be the creation of scientific animations used in the lesson modules. A template will be coded for each of the lesson modules to ensure conformity. Upon receipt of specific educational content, lesson plans and modules will require 5-6 months for completion. The first 3 months are for educational consultants to develop lesson plans and script lesson modules, requiring 2 education personnel or one with the assistance of volunteers; the latter requiring additional time depending on the season. Two months are needed for the development of animations and the incorporation of information on the web site. The final month will include testing of a prototype in schools.

Required information

• Approval for storyline to begin designing site diagram
• A complete list of content desired for inclusion into the project
• A list of objectives and content to be covered in lessons
• (or) copy of completed lesson plans or any other completed material available for the project.

References cited

Kurta, A., and R. H. Baker. Eptesicus fuscus Mammalian Species (1990) 357:1-4.

Fleming, Theodore H., Following the Nectar Trail BATS (1991) Vol.9 No.4:4-7.

Banfield, A. W. F., The Mammals of Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974.

Fenton, Brock M., BATS. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1992.

Barbour, R. W. and W. H. Davis, Bats of America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1969.

French, Barbara. Biologist, Bat Conservation International. Conversation with on June 5th 1997.

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