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Fake Animal Scat

  • Make & Take
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Activity Length: 

30 mins.

Resource Topic: 

  • Animals
  • Ecology and Evolution

Introduction

Students create (and eat!) fake animal scat in this activity from the book “Hands On Grossology” by Sylvia Branzei.

Have you ever examined poop? Well, scatologists are scientists who make their living from studying poop to determine a variety of things about the animals or humans who made it. It may sound gross, but we can learn a lot about an animal’s habitat and habits from its poop! Not only can we see what they’ve been eating, but we can determine what types of plants and animals live in their habitat, where the animal has been hunting or grazing and what types of diseases they may have.

Who knew that poop was so useful?

Objectives: 

  • Explain how scientist can determine what an animal eats by examining its waste.

Materials: 

  • Oatmeal (quick-cooking, but not instant, works best)
  • Cocoa powder
  • Artificial Sweetener (i.e. Sugar Twin)
  • Water

What To Do: 

  1. On some wax paper or a paper plate, use fingers to grind oats into finer pieces. Use about 1/3 cup of oatmeal. This may take a few minutes.
  2. Add about 1 teaspoon of cocoa and 1 teaspoon of artificial sweetener (this acts as a binding agent. Sweetener is more effective than sugar for this).
  3. Add some warm water a little at a time until you arrive at a consistency that will allow you to roll and form the scat into the desired shape.
  4. Dust or roll the scat in a mixture of cocoa powder and artificial sweetener to finish.
  5. Serve on some toilet paper for full effect.
  6. Enjoy!

Extensions: 

  • Use a resource like this Fake Animal Scat handout to help shape your fake scat to that of a particular animal, you could add some seeds and/or raisins to form a good representation. Can other students identify what animal created it? How does the scat of herbivores or carnivores differ?
  • Do some research on an animal and identify what it eats. Roll some pieces of its food into the scat and have a friend dissect it. Can they determine what it is and guess what type of animal made it?

Other Resources: 

Science World Resources | Full Lesson & other activities | Animal Grossology
Science World at TELUS World of Science | School Programs | Grossology

Key Questions: 

  • What might you find in real scat?
  • How do scatologists use scat to learn about animals?

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