Lesson: Activity 78: Coughing Up Clues
Teacher: |
Kaylan Duthie |
Unit Theme/Course: |
SEPUP Ecology |
Date: |
|
Timing: |
2 Days |
Challenge Question:
What can an owl pellet tell you about an owl’s diet? How can you use this information to develop part of a food web?
Overview:
Students will learn about the diet of owls by reconstructing a skeleton from an owl pellet. Students will dissect an owl pellet, separating out the bones, and then sorting and organizing the bones by type to attempt to reconstruct a skeleton. In doing this, students will begin to gather the type of information used to construct food webs, as well as quantitative information about the amount of food needed to sustain an organism. Students will also learn how to use a dichotomous key to identify the type of skeleton they build.
Learning
Objectives [cognitive,
academic, language, socio-cultural] |
Assessment
Criteria |
Student use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data. |
Students are safely using dissecting needles to separate bones from owl pellets, and request/use other tools as needed |
Students develop descriptions, explanations, predictions and models using evidence |
After dissecting the pellets, students identify the types of bones and animals eaten, predicting an owl’s diet |
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem |
Students identify owls as predators |
The complex feeding relationships in an ecosystem are best represented by webs, rather than simple chains |
Students draw a food web for an owl |
Standard/EALR:
6-8 SYSB |
The boundaries of a system
can be drawn differently depending on the features of the system being
investigated, the size of the system, and the purpose of the investigation.
|
Explain how the boundaries of a system can be drawn to
fit the purpose of the study (e.g., to study how insect populations change,
a system might be a forest, a meadow in the forest, or a single tree).
|
6-8 INQC Investigate |
Collecting, analyzing, and
displaying data are essential aspects of all investigations. |
Communicate results using pictures, tables, charts, diagrams,
graphic displays, and text that are clear, accurate, and informative. *a Recognize and interpret patterns
– as well as variations from previously learned or observed patterns
– in data, diagrams, symbols, and words |
6-8 LS1E |
In classifying organisms,
scientists consider both internal and external structures and behaviors. |
Use a classification key to
identify organisms, noting use of both internal and external
structures as well as behaviors. |
6-8 LS2B |
Energy flows through an ecosystem
from producers (plants) to consumers to decomposers.
These relationships can be shown for specific populations in a food
web. |
Analyze the flow of energy in a local ecosystem, and
draw a labeled food web showing the relationships among all of
the ecosystem’s plant and animal populations. |
6-8 LS2C |
The major source of energy
for ecosystems on Earth’s surface is sunlight. Producers transform
the energy of sunlight into the chemical energy of food through photosynthesis.
This food energy is used by plants, and all other organisms to carry
on life processes. Nearly all organisms on the surface of Earth depend
on this energy source. |
Explain how energy from the Sun is transformed through photosynthesis
to produce chemical energy in food. Explain that plants are the only organisms that make their own
food. Animals cannot survive without plants because animals get food by
eating plants or other animals that eat plants. |
coughing_up_clues.pdf | |
File Size: | 290 kb |
File Type: |
owl_pellet_key.pdf | |
File Size: | 26 kb |
File Type: |