Kingsborough Community College of The City University of New York

Kingsborough Community College of The City University of New York

Biology Department

718-368-5502

Biology 33 Competency Measure -

Investigation of Owl Pellets and the Reconstruction of Owl Prey

Biology 33: Goal 4 - Demonstrate an awareness of the diversity and interactions of organisms on earth and the fragility of the earth’s environments.

Directions: Students carry out the Owl Pellet exercise in the Biology 33 laboratory. The instruction sheets are followed and a reconstruction is made of the skeletal remains of owl prey found in the pellets. Submission of a glued, correctly reconstructed small mammalian skeleton with a written description according the criteria given below, constitutes the assessment.

This assessment is graded according to the following criteria. Passing grade is 70%.

Instructor____________________ Section____________________ Semester____________________

ASSESSMENT CRITERION

POINT VALUE

STUDENT NAMES and SCORES

1. Student has correctly assembled the skeleton of one of the small mammals consumed by an owl as found in the pellet.

2. Student has correctly identified the organism that has been assembled.

3. Student has neatly and efficiently assembled and presented the skeleton.

4. Student has written a 1-2 paragraph summary statement (on the same paper with the glued skeleton) describing what an owl pellet is, how many skeletons (complete or partial) were in the pellet that was investigated), and the value of owls in a given ecosystem.

TOTAL

100

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Developed by Peter Pilchman. Used in Bio 33.