Get Your Science On: Animal Ears
How does the shape of your ears affect how you hear? Brenna and Brian explore Animal Ears: ears shaped like those of a brown long-eared bat and an aye-aye lemur. Brown long-eared can hunt by using only sound and they hear at higher pitches (frequencies) than humans do. Aye-aye’s tap on trees to find grubs and hear at lower pitches than humans. Both of these animals’ ears are adapted for listening to different sounds.
How to Build It
Heat thermoplastic (polymorph) meltable plastic in hot water until it turns clear, remove from water, and hand mold it into the shape of an animal’s ear. Take a set of noise-reduction ear muffs, remove the foam insulation and cut holes (we used a rotary/Dremel tool) in each side to match the ears that you made. Glue or tape the ears to the ear muffs, and hear the world in a brand new way!
