Dissecting Owl Pellets After School

Budget cuts in our schools mean less science experiences during the school day. That doesn’t mean our kids can’t be involved and experiment – we just need to do more AFTER SCHOOL!

Try dissecting owl pellets with your child… just don’t sneeze!

What do our kids not get enough of in school? In my opinion, my daughter does not get enough of science and exploring the natural world. This science experiment combines both of these! Affiliate links.

For just a few dollars per child and an Amazon order, I was able to create an after school science experiment that was FUN and EDUCATIONAL!!!!

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!!!

Click this image to Amazon to buy a set of 20 Owl Pellets

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!

Buy the entire Student Owl Pellet Kitfor everything you need all in one place.

We were using charts like this one, making conclusions and really discussing science for over an hour. Some of these questions and statements were not answered in our dissection and we needed to look up more information on the Internet. She also decided that we needed to go to the library on Monday to find some non-fiction text about owls.

“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.

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!

National Geographic Readers: OwlsOwls

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Comments

Momand Kiddo says
November 12, 2012 at 4:55 am
My three year old loves owls, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for this activity, yet! 🙂
Deb Chitwood says
November 12, 2012 at 7:22 am
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/
Ticia says
November 13, 2012 at 12:13 am
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……