BIOLOGY 101: Egg Experiments & An Owl Pellet Dissection

As we studied Flying Creatures with our Biology 101 DVD curriculum, we added activities from Kit #29 (Eggs), and Kit #30 (Owls) from The Young Scientist Series - Set 10. 

What happens to a raw egg when it is placed into a bowl of hot tap water? Bubbles begin to form, due to tiny spores in the egg shell. See the short video below for an example.

When you have a hard-boiled egg, and a raw egg, which one spins faster and longer? Take a look at this next video. The hard-boiled egg is white, and the raw egg is brown. 

In this photo, JJ is getting ready to dissect an owl pellet. In case you were wondering, an owl's stomach cannot digest the fur, bones, teeth, feathers, and insect shells that come from the critters it eats. So, these “extra” parts are formed into a tight PELLET inside the owl, and are later spit up. The pellet JJ is about to dissect has been disinfected and wrapped in aluminum foil until it is ready for dissection.

The unwrapped pellet. It is mostly dark brown, but you can see a small white spot, which is either feathers or fur.

He found this small skull inside of the pellet.

After he gathered all the bones, we put them in bleach water to clean them up, and JJ began to place them on this diagram of a rodent.

He was able to find about 90% of the bones that can be found in a rodent. He also found some very tiny skulls, which we think may have been unborn babies from inside the rodent's mother. It was interesting to see.

Now that we've finished the Flying Creatures section, we are moving on to learn about Land Animals.