Final Report Draft Completion

Today in class, I completed and turned in a rough draft of my final written report.  I say completed because upon my arrival to class, I realized that I had neglected to cite several of the sources I had used to research bat houses, the most important one being an informal interview I had with the volunteer coordinator and animal care supervisor at Bat Zone in which she gave me a lot of good advice about building and hanging bat houses and gave me a lot of good information about why bat houses are so important.  My teacher was generous enough to allow me to fix it and turn it in.

Final Report

Today I began the rough draft of my final report.  I am about half way done and the draft is due to be edited by my teacher on the 13th.  I feel that I am in a very secure spot and expect to finish over the weekend and have plenty of time to edit.  Once it is returned, I will make sure to make improvements in accordance with my teacher's recommendations before turning it in at the end of the semester.

December 1, 2012 - Finishing the Bat Houses

Today, I finished all of my bat houses.  I left them to dry from last week, so this week I simply had to repeat the process and paint front and back with several hours in between to dry.  After I was sure that they were completely dry after the second coat,  I took the houses down to check for any areas I might have missed, then restapled the mesh of the front of the house that I had to remove to paint under.  Finally, all three, large and two smalls, were complete.  I washed off the brushes and cleaned up the workbench.  Now, all I have to do is wait for the environmental planner from DTE to respond to my email (we have been corresponding over whether DTE can use my bat houses on their utility poles, for their customers or on their grounds).  During this project, I learned a lot, not only about bats and bat houses but about carpentry, communicating with people, and various forms of technology.  I feel it has been very beneficial to my further education.

Bowers Farm Update

Today in class, I checked in with my teacher to see if the representative from Bowers Farm had responded yet.  She had and I was pleasantly surprised by her reply.  I had been worried that I would be refused because of a fear that the bats could hurt students or because state laws would not permit it like at the IA.  However, I was completely wrong.  Bowers Farm refused my houses because they already had as many as they could handle!  Apparently, a few years ago, a boy did a similar project and installed at least a dozen houses throughout the farm.  Although I'm disappointed that I was unable to place my houses, I am happy that they have already been helping bats for years.  I learned that I shouldn't underestimate people's understanding of bats.  I'm often prone to thinking that nobody understands how important they are and that everyone fears them or thinks they are rats.  However, many people are aware of their usefulness and other positive attributes.

Bowers Farm

This week, I talked to my teacher about possibly hanging bat houses at Bowers School Farm, the educational farm just a few blocks from the International Academy.  With his help, I emailed the head of the farm and asked if it would be possible for one of my houses to find a home at her farm.  This would be great since my research has shown that bats prefer crop bugs and a bat house on the farm would prove beneficial for both the bats and the farm since bats are an environmentally friendly method of pest control.  Hopefully, I will hear back from her shortly.

November 24 and 25, 2012

This weekend, I began to paint my bat houses.  These houses will be home to breeding colonies of mother bats during the summer and they must keep very warm, almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit inside the bat house.  In order to do this, bat houses in cooler climates are painted black to absorb heat from the sun.  Because of higher temperatures due to global warming, it is not always advisable to do this.  However, in Michigan where I'll be hanging my houses, it is still recommended by the OBC that all bat houses are painted black with weather resistant latex paint.  I bought a small can of paint back in September with my dad and this weekend, he showed me how to paint making the least mess possible. We spread plastic sheeting and newspaper over his basement worktable and placed the houses on that.  Then, we painted one side and the back of each house.  Because the paint had to dry overnight,  the next day, Sunday, we flipped them over and painted the front and other side.  Then we put the lid back on the paint and wrapped the brushes in aluminum foil to store in the fridge until next weekend when we will put on the second coat of paint.  The cold of the fridge will keep the paint from drying since water will not evaporate out as quickly.

November 20, 2012 Photostory

I had a lot of trouble with my computer when completing this assignment, but after restarting my computer, I was able to complete it.  Here it is:

November 19, 2012 - Podcast

Here, finally, is my podcast in response to the Single Story TED Talk.  My IB Learner Profile video should be up shortly, although I've been having so many computer issues, that is not definite.  Despite having free reign on three computers, I am having difficulty making a good video which does not self delete as soon as I save it.  This is because the Widows Movie Maker on the two desktops at my house is the old version which replaces all pictures with large red Xs if it can't find them, which is always unless you have a memory key and have all files and things on that key.  It's incredibly unreliable, the product is not as good, the interface is irritating and confusing, and exporting the smallest video takes hours.  I would prefer to be using iMovie on the mac, but my laptop too is so old that it no longer has enough memory space to save pictures, let alone videos.  Each time I make my video there, it refuses to save, then glitches and won't even show the video.  This has never happened before, so I am hoping to have fixed the problem before I go to bed tonight.  Either way, I'm learning a lot about computer maintenance, programs, and quirks.

DTE

Today, I received a reply from the environmental planner at DTE.  She says that she is happy to help me, but did not understand the meaning of my request and wasn't sure whether I was offering my houses or asking if I could install them myself on one of their poles.  Either option is good for me, although it would probably be better for both of us if DTE could hang the houses since they have better equipment and also won't be liable if anything happens, unlike if I did it myself.  I said this to Ms. Urbani.  I really hope this works out!

Project Demo

In class, we recently had a project demonstration due in which we were supposed to explain our project, its progress and our interest in it.  I made a video full of pictures of me constructing my bat houses and it was shown on the overhead while I described it to the class.  The main thing that my teacher noticed about my presentation was that my pictures which showed me drilling on the floor since my dad's workbench is too high often included my bare feet.  He found this both amusing and something to be improved since he was worried that the sawdust could give splinters or that I could be injured in some other way since the work was dangerous enough for safety glasses.  I don't think that would be a big problem, but I will be sure to heed his advice as I continue to work on my bat houses.

This is the video I showed.  The pictures in it are the best of the ones I have taken so far and fairly well record my progress up to this point.

Contacting DTE

During class today, I contacted the environmental sector at DTE.  On their web page, DTE discusses the several causes that they support to better the environment.  One of the things they do is to hang bat houses on some of their electrical poles.  I used the contact us box at the bottom of the page to send an email asking them if they could find a place to put my houses as well.  I am not sure who received my message, but I hope whoever receives it takes it seriously and replies soon.  Here is the message I sent:

I am a sophomore at the International Academy in Bloomfield Hills.  I am currently working on an MYP project creating bat houses to hang in our community.  I saw on your website that you hang bat houses on some of your poles and I was wondering if I could hang mine as well.  Thank you for your consideration!

~Anne Wampler

October 19, 2012 - Goals

     For my personal project, I am studying bat houses and their benefits for both bats and humans.  I have been working at the OBC Bat Zone for several years and I have come to believe that bats are very important to the environment.  With environment as my AOI, I will research and show how bats are vital to green efforts such as organic farming and control of insects.  A single big brown bat, a creature smaller than your palm, can eat between 600 and 1000 mosquito sized insects insects every hour for up to 6 hours every night.  That's almost 6,000 bugs per bat per night.  Not only do they get rid of the mosquitoes, bats eat many other types of insects such as crop bugs which would multiply immensely if left unchecked.  This makes them vital to organic farmers who rely on bats destroy the insects instead of using pesticides.
     My goal for this project is to build three bat houses and hang them up, ideally with at least one at the IA.  In order to accomplish this, I will need to build the bat houses before the end of October so that I can hang them before it gets cold after Novemer.  With that done, I will work of the research and presentation parts of the personal project until its due date at the end of the semester
     If I have managed to create and hang the bat houses, having found people who are sympathetic to bats or having converted people to see them in a better light, I will consider this a success since I will not be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the houses in any location until the spring.

October 16 and 17, 2012 - Catching Up & Prezi

     As you may have noticed, this blog does not always run in chronological order.  This is because earlier on in the project, I would spend a day or an evening at just building my bat houses and I wouldn't have the time afterward to blog about it.  Therefore, I have been writing backlogged journal entries.  They are accurate as every time I worked on the project I wrote it down on my whiteboard, they just need to be transferred to cyberspace.  This experience has taught me one important lesson: no matter what, always keep up with journals because they just keep multiplying if you miss doing them.  Classes give material for a post, as well as any time I may spend at this project after school or over the weekend.
    In that vein, today, October 17, I also rediscovered my Prezi account from last year and created a new Prezi as per the technology section of this project.  It talks briefly about my project, AOI, how much I have accomplised thus far and how much I have left to do.  Prezi has changed since the last time I used it, so I am still figuring some things out for the next time I use it.  I used to think it was just powerpoint with different transitions and, since I have spent a lot of time making power points, I preferred that tool.  However, this time, I found Prezi much more manageable and clear and I am now more open to using it in the future.

This is my Project Prezi:

Bat House Project Prezi on Prezi

Bat Houses at School

     During class several weeks ago, I had a discussion with my teacher about where to put my bat houses and how best to get them there.  In order to best attract bats, bat houses should be located 15 feet off the ground facing southeast on a pole or the side of a building.  This way, they will receive the maximum amount of sunshine every day, keeping the breeding colonies that live in them over the summer warm.  We agreed that it would be really nice if I were able to post at least one house on the side of the IA and Mr. Pagnani said that he would ask the vice-principal, Mr. Smith, about it as soon as possible.
     The next class, Mr. Pagnani told me the results of his conversation.  Mr. Smith was not adverse to putting my houses on the side of the building, however he was concerned that the school health inspectors would consider bats "rodentia" and would not approve of attracting them to the school grounds.  Aside from the fact that bats are not rodentia as they are chiroptera, more closely related to primates than rodents, this is a valid concern.  Bats are considered rabies vectors in the state of Michigan because, despite the minute percentage of the bat population carrying the disease, sick bats are often picked up by humans, making them bite in self defence and spread rabies.  Bowers Farm, the educational farm near the IA has had a case of rabies in the last ten years.  Thus, school officials may be very leery of bats in the viscinity of a school.  It is Mr. Pagnani's opinion that I should hang them one up anywayas it is "simpler to ask forgiveness than permission."  However, I am worried that if the house is found after bats have moved in in the spring we will still have to take it down and that could hurt or kill all of the babies in the entire colony.  We are now looking for who to ask in order to place the house legally and Jessica Fabian, the head of animal care at the OBC has promised to help me find alternate places to hang the houses if the IA should fall through.

My Bat House Plans

After researching for simple and effective bat house plans online and through friends in the Organization for Bat Conservation, I found this video from which I based the plans for my first bat house. The man in the video is the head of the Organization of Bat Conservation, Rob Mies and I discovered it on the OBC webpage, so I think it is a credible plan.

September 30, 2012 - Continuing building

     Once I bought more cedar for the remaining sides and roof of the two new bat houses, I cut the pieces for the next house and followed the same procedure I used to create the first bat house, only on a smaller scale.  I had more technical difficulties than ever before; with the angle cutter on the table saw, not being able to cut a straight line, and much much more, but finally, I managed to get it to all come together and I completed bat houses two and three.  These two houses are standard OBC 1x2 foot bat houses and all that remains is for me to caulk, paint, and find a place for them to go.

September 29, 2012 - The First Bat House

I just finished the carpentry part of the first bat house.  My dad and I took the pieces of cedar and plywood we cut earlier today and screwed them together as per Rob Mies' online instructions.  The angles we cut in the wood were good as it all fit together quite nicely and it was easy to drill and screw together the bat house.  It was a good learning opportunity, gaining first hand experience with all of my dad's various carpentry tools.  I suppose it was unfortunate that I learned the hard way which end was which on the staple gun, but I'm sure my finger will heal soon.  The one thing I noticed, however, was how large the end result was.  I had known from the beginning that it would be two feet by two feet, but just how much bigger it was than the bat houses sold by the OBC hadn't registered.  I definitely think that now I see the size of my first bat house, I will split the second one in half and make three bat houses as that would make my products, smaller lighter, generally easier to deal with, and possibly also more attractive to the bats because they will want to keep close together to keep warm and safe from predators.  This taught me that I should always stop and think about what my end result will be in a project and what will the implications of that be before I dive in headlong and only realize later that I've made a mistake.  I don't think this size discrepancy will pose any real problem other than finding a location to hang my oversized bat house, but it would have been nice to plan ahead and know what I'm going to end up with.

September 29, 2012 - Building

Today I began to build my first bat house.  I am planning to construct two, one for IA, if I can get permission, and one for somewhere else.  I cut all of the wooden pieces for my first house and used the spare cedar to create some parts for the second.  My dad has had to teach me how to safely use an electric saw and cut at angles.  Initially, I was very slow and cut in wobbly lines that didn't follow our template at all.  However, by the end of the day, I could cut fairly accurately as long as the wood was held firm.  This is a prime example of learning by doing because even though my dad explained everything I had to do before I started, I needed a lot of practice before I was comfortable with the saw.

 

New Accounts

Today, I created several new accounts with various web tools in connection with the MYP and Personal Project.  I created a diigo account in order to keep  track of all of my online research.  I put the link to them into my diigo and then connected my diigo to my blog so that it is easy to go to my sites.  I also created Weebly and Wordpress blogs.  Weebly is a very simple website maker.  To design it, you drag elements into the page.  In that sense, it is quite user friendly.  However, past experience with Weebly has taught me not to trust it since it does not save correctly if it has insufficient internet connectivity and thus often loses recently added elements and even entire pages.  Wordpress is a more complex tool. There are many more things to change and customize, once you are used to the layout.  However, at first it can be overwhelming and its complexity gives it a very long loading time.  I personally prefer this tool, Blogger, for website creation because it is generally easier to deal with and I have also spent more time learning it so it is easier for me to understand.  My final creation was a bubble.us account.  This creates mind maps, such as the ones I drew below.  It is very easy to understand and edit.  I will probably use these tools a lot throughout this project.

Here is an example of a bubble.us mind map:

Mind Map Differences

My Original Mind Map

 My Updated Mind Map

Ignoring the fact that these mind maps are on unrelated topics, they differ in other ways as well.  At the time of my original map, I had very little idea of what I wanted to do.  I simply drew out various things related to one of my extra-curricular activities.  Later, I generated a new idea.  When I mapped that topic, it was much more specific and full since I knew exactly what I wanted to do and had done some research into what it would entail as well. I feel that it is far more complete and represents my plan for my project.

September 9, 2012 - Mesh

I volunteer at the Bat Zone, the Organization for Bat Conservation's headquarters, every Sunday.  There, I help to clean the cages of the fruit bats, chop up their food, and handle some of the other nocturnal animals that live there, such as sugar gliders.  I would like to be able to handle bats as well but, being a minor, I need a rabies pre-exposure shot before I can directly interact with any of them, even though they have all been tested for rabies and have no way to become exposed to it.  While there this week, I asked that day's head of animal care, Amanda, if I could have the polyethylene mesh I needed to construct my bat houses.  She was very excited about the project and gave me the mesh before I left.  Now, I have all the materials I need and will be able to start building soon.

September 3, 2012 - Buying Materials

This is the first day in which I worked specifically on my bat houses. I spent the afternoon at Lowes buying materials. I never realized how many different types of paint there are to chose from and I had to be very careful to make sure that I got the right kind of black, outdoor, weather resistant, acrylic, non-toxic paint. Needless to say, it took a lot of searching from my dad and I to find the correct can. We also selected our plywood and cedar. My dad had to teach me about the different types of wood and explain exactly what our instructions were looking for before we could choose our boards. After finding screws, a drill, caulk, and various other ingredients needed to create our bat house, we went searching for the correct type of plastic mesh. We had to use polyethylene tiny mesh in order to best accommodate the bats. Metal or thinner mesh would cut their toes when they roosted and any larger mesh would restrict the number of bats that could fit in the house. After almost half an hour of searching, we came to the conclusion that we would have to purchase the specific mesh from the Organization for Bat Conservation, the bat protection group for which I volunteer.