My students need authentic (and disgusting) owl pellets to thoroughly explore the ecological food chain!
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Petuskey's classroom raised $370
This project is fully funded
My Students
My students love to explore life science inquiries in our laboratory, even if the subject is, well, unsettling.
It is now time to "unwrap" the evidence of what, exactly, owls eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: the owl pellet.
Owl pellets are small, tight balls of hair and bone, the remains of small animals, that form in an owl's stomach. Regularly, owls vomit these pellets, which are then gathered for lucky scientists, like us, to study.
This project aims to discover what animals have been caught and digested: rodent, shrew, mole, bird. Also, students are challenged to identify which body parts have survived the owl digestion process: skull, jaw, scapula, forelimb, or hindlimb.
Do I think this project is vital for all students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades? You bet your dissection tweezers I do!
My Project
Last year, one of my teaching peers handed me a small bag of shiny, aluminum-foil-wrapped nuggets; the bag had been tossed around in his classroom for years, unused. They were, in fact, owl pellets, perfectly preserved and ready-to-use by my laboratory students.
When we began to "unwind" the masses of fine hair and bone from each owl pellet, we discovered that no two owl pellets contained the same animal's remains.
What's more, the soft construction of each owl pellet seemed to protect fragile skeletal structures, such as skulls and jawbones.
Our students gathered huge quantities of forensic evidence from this small bag of pellets. Using our Zoomy microscopes (from previous Donors Choose projects, thank you!), we successfully identified a wide range of animals consumed by the owl donors.
What other project allows young scientific minds to gather data on owl diet and apex behaviors? None! That is the true beauty of this project!
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Petuskey and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
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