Why dissect an owl pellet?
Well for starters, kids (at least mine) are extremely excited about owls. After reading a ton of books about owls, I asked my grade schooler if she would like to see a real owl scat (the ball of indigestible wastes they throw up!) She was more than excited to not just see it, but take it apart. We need to get and keep our boys and GIRLS excited about science!!!
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This activity is a great way to teach about the food chain and really learn what a predator is. We talked about the importance of owls and how they keep the rodent population from getting out of control. Farmers and gardeners are very thankful for the help of owls – without it, the mice might eat all the crops!
“I wonder how many mice this owl ate?” “How many animals must an owl eat each week?” “Do baby owls regurgitate pellets too?” and many, many more.
More Resources for Dissecting Owl Pellets After School
Would your kids be interested in dissecting an owl pellet? Here are some more resources.
- Owl Brand Discovery Kits Home Page
- Scholastic lesson plan for grade school kids
- Owl Pellet Lab Report
- Description and investigation report
- Resources with Videos
No stomach for the real thing? Try a virtual experience. Not as hands-on, but neat! This would be a great activity to do before or after the real thing. It has some great facts about the different bones that can be found in your scat!
My three year old loves owls, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for this activity, yet! 🙂
This is a great activity for both afterschooling and homeschooling! I pinned your post to my Bird Unit Study Board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/bird-unit-study/
How awesome you got to do that. I picked up what I thought was a real owl pellet, only to discover as we were dissecting it that it was a rather poorly put together fake……