Teaching about Animal Scat
Animal scat.....totally gross? or totally fascinating? I recently developed and tested a science activity with a group of girls and their mothers. The topic: what you can learn from an animal by examining its scat. That's right, scat.
For the activity, I paced the aisles of two local grocery stores, looking for food items that could be transformed into....scat samples. Then, I took my dog for a walk around our neighborhood, stuffing leaves, pine needles, and pine cones into plastic bags in order to create the realistic setting for each sample.
Each scat sample was formed out of food items, set in a naturalistic setting, and placed for the girls and their moms to examine. Armed with a classification key, they examined each scat samples' characteristics, such as shape, size, number, color, texture, and location, trying to match the scat sample with the animal who might have made it. Much fun was had when I revealed the animal/sample matches, and even more fun was revealing the food items which formed each scat.
Take a peek at these photos, keeping in mind that the scat is formed from human food and, in theory, totally edible. The photos include replica scat from coyote, opossum, deer, toad, mouse, rabbit, bear, cougar, and goose. Which food item do you think was the secret recipe for each type of animal scat?
3 Comments:
This is a new art form! Fantastic!
These are great! Would you be willing to share your recipes?
this would be great for my "yucky" summer camp this summer...
Here's the recipe for these scat samples.
Cottontail rabbit: Cocoa Puffs cereal.
Toad: Broken pieces of Crackling Oat Bran cereal.
Deer: Dried blueberries.
Goose: Dried dates.
Coyote: Large Tootsie Roll, microwaved for about 5-10 seconds, and shaped.
Mouse: Chocolate baking sprinkles.
Mountain lion: Chocolate Fudge Clif Bar.
Opossum: Cow Tales candy (it comes in a rope, sculpt it to the correct shape and size).
Black bear (summer scat): Bran and berry muffins, smashed.
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