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Goal

To engage students in learning about food chains and food webs by letting them dissect owl pellets. 

What will be done with my students

Students will do a three day unit on food chains and food webs to culminate by dissecting "mystery pellets." After students learn about food chains in the classroom, they will get to dissect the owl pellet with their lab group. Then they use a bone identification chart to identify what their owl ate. This unit will also incorporate math when the students graph how many of each prey animal they find and literacy with two books about owls that students will read and discuss.  

Benefits to my students

This activity covers two of the 4th grade science benchmarks: 1. Explain that animals, including humans, cannot make their own food and that when animals eat plants or other animals, the energy stored in the food source is passed to them. 2. Trace the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers.

Students get the hands-on experience of dissecting the owl pellets and seeing what the owl ate instead of just reading about it. This is how science really comes to life for them! 

Budget Narrative

45 owl pellets which would be enough for about 1 per group of 4 students. Also 2 owl pellet posters that have a diagram of how the owl pellet is produced and a bone identification chart.  

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