Owl Pellet Investigation

Owl Pellet Investigation
Adapted from:
Ansberry, K. & Morgan, E. (2010). Picture-perfect science lessons: Using
children’s books to guide inquiry, 3-6. Arlington, VA: NSTA
Press.

SC Science Standards
3rd grade:
3-1.6 Infer meaning from data communicated in graphs, table, and
diagrams (graph is created at end of activity).
3-2.1 Illustrate the life cycles of seed plants and various animals
and summarize how they grow and are adapted to conditions
within their habitats
3-2.2 Explain how physical and behavioral adaptations allow
organisms to survive.
3-2.3 Recall the characteristics of an organism’s habitat that allow
the organism to survive there.
3-2.5 Summarize the organization of simple food chains.

4 th grade
4-1.1 Classify observations as either quantitative or qualitative.
4-2.3 Explain how humans and other animals use their senses
and sensory organs to detect signals from the environment
and how their behaviors are influenced by these signals.
4-2.5 Explain how an organism’s patterns of behavior are related
to its environment.
5 th grade
5-2.4 Identify the roles of organisms as they interact and depend
on one another through food chains and food webs in an
ecosystem, considering producers and consumers,
decomposers, predators and prey, and parasites and hosts.
5-2.5 Explain how limiting factors affect populations in
ecosystems.

For partners
• 1 Hand lens
• 1 Centimeter ruler
• 1 Pellet on a paper plate
• Paper towel
• 2 Wood sticks
• 1 glove
• Bone chart (packet)
• Spray bottles to share
between groups
Materials
For each student
• O-W-L chart (can
also be recreated
in science
notebook)
For class
• Digital balance

Engage
• Record your observations on your O-W-L chart
– Qualitative observations
• Use your senses to describe the properties of the object
• Use the hand lens to make detailed observations
– Quantitative observations
• Record your measurements in centimeters (length,
circumference) and grams (mass)
• Write your wonderings about the owl pellet in
the Wonder column of your O-W-L chart and
discuss with your partner

Let’s Read (Engage)
Focus for reading:
• As we read, listen for
any clues for what the
owl pellets might be
• Add things that you
learn to the “L” column
of the ) O-W-L chart.

Explore
You are now going to be ornithologists (scientists who study
birds).
• Your job is to determine as much as you can about the diet
of the owl that regurgitated your pellet.
• The owl pellets have been sanitized using high heat to kill
germs, so they are safe to touch. But I would like you to
wear gloves.
• Students who are asthmatic or highly allergic to animal hair
may need to be excused from dissecting real pellets.
• Pellets, Inc. offers Perfect Pellets as an alternative
(accommodation).

• You will now use your wood sticks to help
you dissect the owl pellets.
– Carefully pick away at all the fur on the pellet to
get to the bones.
– You may need to spray the pellet to soften it.
– Be careful so you do not break the bones!
– Put the bones on the paper plate as you find
them.

Explain
1. As you find bones, compare them to the owl pellet
bone chart.
2. Try to identify the animal they came from and
which bones they are.
These can be attached to index cards and labeled with
the names of the animals to help students organize and
present their findings.
3. Older students can try to arrange the bones to
assemble the skeleton of the prey (like a
paleontologist assembles dinosaur bones).
4. You can also have students group the types of
bones together (skulls, legs, etc.).

Explain
• An owl pellet forms 6 to 10 hours after the
meal is eaten and is regurgitated 10 to 16
hours after the meal.
• This is necessary to keep the bird healthy.
• Owls can’t digest fur and bones, so they spit
these parts out in a compressed pellet.
• Let’s watch a baby owl

Explain
• What types of bones did you find?
• What can scientists learn by studying owl
pellets?
• Why is this a good method of studying an
owl’s diet?

Elaborate
Math Connections
• Each pair of students could do a tally of the
types of bones they found and create a graph.
• We could then create a class bar graph to
represent the different animals represented
and the number of bones from each animal.

Owl Cupcake

Elaborate
Night Owls
What owls eat
Parents feeding their babies
Owl Listening Guide

Elaborate
Label Parts of an Owl
• Students can work with their group to label
the parts of the owl
• You can do a labeling activity on the Smart
Board

EYES
EARS
EAR TUFTS
TAIL FEATHER
TOES
TALONS
WINGS
BEAK
FEATHERS
FACIAL DISKS

Owls of the World
1. There is one continent where owls do not live. Which continent is it?
_____________________________
2. Find the Laughing Owl on the map. Which continent does it live on?
_____________________________
3. What kind of owl lives on every continent except Antarctica?
_____________________________
4. The Elf Owl is the smallest owl in the world. Which continent does it live on?
_______________________________
5. Find the Spotted Wood Owl on the map. Which continent does it live on?
______________________________________
6. Which continents does the Snowy Owl live on?
_________________________________________________
7. Find the Screech Owl on the map. Which continent does it live on?
___________________________________________
8. What kinds of owls live in Africa?
_____________________________________________________
9. What kinds of owls live in South America?
_____________________________________________________
Challenge!
The Northern Hawk Owl lives in the country of China. China is located on which
continent? Color that continent red.
The Barred Owl lives in the United States. The United States is located on which
continent? Color that continent blue.

Real-life connections
• Carolina raptor center
The Carolina raptor center has an outreach
program for schools in the area.

Burrowing Owls in Florida

More books about owls

Formative Assessment
• Have students complete the L column of their
O-W-L Chart
O-W-L Chart
O W L
What do you OBSERVE
about the object?
(Don’t forget to
measure.)
What do you WONDER
about the object?
What did you LEARN
about the object?

Elaborate – Food Chains
• Seed Mouse Owl
• When one animal eats another animal or
plant, they both become part of a food chain.
• A food chain is the path that energy takes as
one living thing eats another.
• The arrows represent the direction of the
energy flow.
• The Sun is the source of all the energy in a
food chain.

Elaborate – Food Webs
• There are some simple food chains in nature,
but usually two or more food chains link to
form a food web.
• A food web is made of many food chains put
together.
Seed Mouse Owl
Cricket Shrew Snake

Elaborate

• Read the book
• Give students copy of word sort cards (in your
course packet)
– Allow them to sort word cards into categories of
their own choice
– Then challenge students to use the graphic
organizer and sort the cards into producers,
consumers, omnivores, herbivores, and carnivores

Butternut Hollow Pond Food Web

Graphic Organizer
Producers Consumers
Herbivores Carnivores Omnivores
green algae woodchuck dragonfly fisherman
wildflower mallard duck largemouth bass Raccoon
water shamrock deer pickerel frog opossum
grass snapping turtle
heron
brown bat
marsh hawk

Elaborate (continued)
Real Life Connections
• Challenge students to find examples of each
type of organism (producers, herbivores,
carnivores, omnivores) around their homes
• Create a food web using the organisms they
find
• Share with the class
• Food chain song

A snowy white owl takes flight in this undated handout photo courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service. Bird enthusiasts are reporting rising numbers of snowy owls from the Arctic winging
into the lower 48 states this winter in a mass southern migration that a leading owl researcher
called "unbelievable" according to Denver Holt, head of Owl Research Institute in Montana
(Yahoo News, Jan. 29, 2012).

Dirty Jobs: Owl Vomit Collector

Evaluate
Have students work in pairs to create a Food
Web Poster (use checklist)
– Must contain at least one producer, one
herbivore, one carnivore, and one omnivore. All
organisms must be labeled
– Encourage students to create more complex food
webs
– Arrows should show energy flow between each
organism
– Sun must be included in food web

Evaluate - continued
• Create a story to accurately
explain the food web poster
• Food Web Quiz

Other assessment strategies
• Owl Glyph
• Owl Trivia
• Owl Whooo Has

Owl Assessment Strategies Article
from Science and Children

Internet Resources
• www.kidwings.com
– This site was designed to teach young and old about the
wonders of birds. The most exciting part of the site is the
Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection.
• www.owlcam.com
– Share in the adventures of a pair of Northern Barred
Owls as they raise their family in a nest box in Eastern
Massachusetts.
• www.pelletsinc.com
– A source for Perfect Pellets (faux pellets)
• www.whooooknew.com
– An excellent resource for this unit. Includes the PP on
assessment ideas and links for the websites listed above

Legend of the Guardians
Book set Movie

Next week…
Discuss expectations for final
lesson plan and presentation
Rainbows
Roller Coasters