Friday Night at the Roses - Dissecting Owl Pellets

Well, it started as a simple study of birds for science as part of our My Father's World curriculum Exploration to the 1850s .





We looked at feathers under a microscope.
Then we drew diagrams of a birds digestive system.

This one is Joish's

We learned that the bird's crop allows it to eat alot of food really fast and then the crop sends the food to the stomach at a steady rate. The stomach breaks down some of the food, but the gizzard does the grinding. Some birds eat things that cannot be fully broken down like bones, fur, and even some seeds and beetle casings. These form a pellet, which the bird expels through its mouth.

Okay, are you grossed out? Well, anyway, I decided to order 3 such pellets. These came in the mail, and as a reward for finishing all school work for the week, the kids and I got to dissect them. Theron and Josiah worked as a team.

But before we did that, each of us tried an online dissection to help us get a feel for what we would be doing.





It's a cool site. You can find it at www.kidwings.com . It can be used as a prerequisite to the actual dissection or as a cheaper, less messy and easier alternative. We are going with the former this time.

We were ready to be "real" scientists! We carefully opened the foil-wrapped pellets, measured them, and inspected them. We determined that they are most likely from a barn owl by referencing our DK book on birds.



Next, we used toothpicks and tweezers to break apart the pellet and see what's inside.



There was alot of fur, tiny bones, and each pellet had at least one skull and a set of jaw bones.

This was my first exciting discovery - a jaw bone!

It was very tedious work and took alot of patience, being careful not to break the small bones. The interesting things we noted were that my pellet had alot of dried grasses in it. Hannah's had black fur as opposed to the gray fur of the others.
It took a good hour or two to complete. We were so tired. We tried to identify all of the different bones. They were all from some type of rodent.

I laid my bones out on the diagram provided. Notice the huge skull and jaw bones with one really overgrown tooth.
In front of the huge skull is a tiny skull and jaw bones along with some leg bones.
The pelvic bone probably goes with the smaller skull also. It seems a bit small for this big fella.
 

These are Hannah and Josiah and Theron's trays. There are some nice bones in there, too. Now, to just get them sorted. Wanna give it a try?

Yummy Science

We just finished our study of all of the planets, including Pluto, the dwarf planet.
Because Pluto is so cold, we did a freezing experiement.
I tried to keep the results a secret, but it leaked out anyway.
I mean, what do you think will happen when you put milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a bag,
put it in another bag with ice and rock salt, and shake it vigorously for 6 - 8 minutes?

Well, for one thing, your hands will probably get cold and you'll have to put on oven mitts, and someone's bag will leak because they decided to speed the process by beating it.

Six minutes is a long time when you are "shaking your bag". You might have to get someone to give you a break. When the timer goes off and you squeeze out the contents of your bag, . . .

you'll agree. Science is good. Mmmmmmm.

Start Your Weekend with a Whirl

This was actually part of our science lesson, 'Make a Tornado Tube'.

It was easy to make. All you need are 2 2-liter bottles, a 1" washer, and duct tape.

Very cool AND fun. The kids played with it for a long time.

Science Gone Wrong? Part II

 Okay, here's the rest of the story.

Hey, look how it sticks together.

Meanwhile, a minor distraction occurs.

Lady found something.

Cool.

Josiah ready to rescue the turtle.

Little Lady in disguise

Back to our Mercury crater experiment. What were we suppose to do?

Hey Mom, I think Josiah made playdough.

Science IS sometimes messy!


Science Gone Wrong? Part I

Our science activity today was to drop pebbles into flour and notice the "craters" they made on the surface of the flour. We are learning about Mercury and how the surface could have gotten so dimpled.

"This should be interesting."

"Bombs away!"

Well, the asteroids flew and I knew this was an activity for outside. Even though the instructions did not say, "Do this out of doors.", experience told me "better safe than sorry".

"What could happen? I feel perfectly safe."

"What is that on your face?"

"I think I got splashed with dust from Mercury."

While child #1 was reveling in her new make-over, child #2 was doing some experimenting of his own.

TO BE CONTINUED

Let's Review with Mr. Bones

Hey kids, it's time for a review. What have you learned about the human body this year?

Mr. Bones trying to look tough

You learned about the skeletal system! That's great! You put me together? You think I'm humerus (pun, intended)? When you first saw me, I looked like this?

Less than $2 from the Park Avenue Thrift (Mom's favorite place to shop)

That is just ghastly! Are you telling a fib-ula? Ha, Ha. Well let's move on. And don't be pulling my leg either.

Wow, that's some leg!

Now if you can't be serious, I am going to have to talk to someone else. Maybe Mr. Invisible over there will have a brain.

Mr. Invisible looks like he's open to talking

Finally, someone who has a brain. Mr. Invisible, it seems that you might have enough GUTS to play it straight with me. What, you want me to go head to head with you on GeoSafari? Maybe you're a little too brainy for me.

Is he intimidating to you?

I think I'll just try my hand, I mean feet, at dancing.

Dancing to 'Dem Bones'

Excuse me, I think I'll cut in here while Mr. Bones is dancing. This IS MY blog, right? I was really excited to find the things you see here at such great prices. Mr. Invisible came from the $1 Store years ago and he does open up so you can "dissect" him. The only thing that does not come out is his brain. And then, there's the GeoSafari card on the parts of the human body (also in a pack from the afore mentioned Thrift Store). We were able to use all of these items to do a fun review of our science studies.

Waving his arms

What? What? Aren't you watching me?

Mr. Bones, if you can't control yourself. I am going to have to put you in that nice plastic dome that you came with. It WILL keep the dust off of you.

No, no, I'm not ready to go in there just yet.



"What will I do next?"

Okay, but I can't have you disturbing the kids while they are doing their school work now, can I? And we learned more than just about the skeletal system. We learned about most of the body systems. Only one more to cover. . . the reproductive system.

Sounds interesting, but I can't help you with that one.

I know, but that's okay. I have some really good books to use. Maybe I'll share about those on a future blog.