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Who's in there?
Darrell Greer
The kids were introduced to the program by Kivalliq Science Educators Community member Jim Kreuger of Baker Lake. Teacher Cindy Rempel says the students were fascinated by the pellets regurgitated by the owl, especially when they learned the pellets come out the same end they went in. "The pellets are along the same line as a cat with a hairball in that they cough it back up," says Rempel. "We soaked the pellets in warm water and, basically, dissected them to find out what was in there." The students were amazed to realize parts of the pellets were actually bits of bird-and-lemming skulls. The snowy owl digests the meat it eats, but not the bones or fur from its captured prey. Rempel says in one pile of pellets the students dissected, they found the owls had eaten three different lemmings and a bird. "It was a great exercise in learning and observation, with a nice Northern theme to it. "The kids were so on-task; they just loved it. The pellets can be ordered through various outlets or actually collected right here on the tundra." Rempel says Kreuger is a science consultant for schools in the Kivalliq region and visits Leo Ussak at least once a year. She says her students have been learning a lot about Northern animals this year, which the kids always find interesting. "This was something special because with a project like this - so hands-on as compared to textbook and other forms of learning - the interaction really attracts the kids and they have a lot of fun while they learn. "The students were given a skeleton diagram to identify the bones they found in the pellets to see what the owls had eaten. That, of course, made them very curious and, as Jim said while discussing the project, curiosity is the key to learning. "A student will investigate and find answers when they're curious."
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