Overview: Ecology dissects owl pellets and assembles the skeleton of the owl prey and uses their finding to generate a food web and explore keystone species.
Goals:
Understand thatat each link in a food web some energy is stored in newly made structures but much energy is dissipated into the environment as heat.
Be able to distinguish between the accommodation of an individual organism to its environment and the gradual adaptation.
Use the contents of the owl pellet to: Adaptations, habitat, population, niche, ecosystem, producers, consumers, decomposers, and food webs.
Agenda:
Day 1:
Students select pair, or work alone
Gather materials:
Owl pellet
Dissecting trey
Dissecting needles
Disassemble owl pellet
Set aside bones and teeth
Day 2:
Assemble the skeleton (layout on paper and glue approval before gluing down)
Glue down
Identify species using species identification guide