A Science Lesson for Dog Owners

As regular readers of this blog know, I love dogs. But as much as I love them there is one habit that I wish "man's best friend" would kick. That habit is eating poop. Whether its from a deer, a moose, a horse, or any other mammal, my dogs have had time not scooping up a mouthful. While I still don't like the habit, thanks to a new MinuteEarth video, I now know why they do it.

Why Do Some Animals Eat Poop? explains why and how some animals get nutrients from eating the excrement of other animals. The video also mentions why the feces of some animals has more nutrients than that of other animals. Like all MinuteEarth videos, the description notes on YouTube for this video include a list of the references used in producing the video. Watch the video on YouTube or as embedded below.


Applications for Education
Any student who has a dog, might be interested in the lesson in this video. And if you want to build a complete flipped video lesson around it, try using EDpuzzle or TES Teach.

Apparently, I write about poop more often than I remember. A quick search of my archives unveiled three other poop-related lessons. Those are a TED-Ed Lesson explaining why the world isn't covered in poop, a TED-Ed lesson about constipation, and the classic Who Pooped? game from the Minnesota Zoo.

Who Pooped? - Identify Animals by Scat/ Dung

Update: September 2020. Unfortunately, this resource is no longer available. It was a favorite of mine and many students for many years. 

Even if it is slightly gross Who Pooped? is a fun and educational site through which students try to identify animals by their scat or dung. I was reminded of the site over the weekend and thought that I just had to share it again.

Who Pooped? is an interactive game in which students learn about various animals by guessing which animal created which pile of poop. Believe it or not, there is actually some good information about the animals that follows each round of guessing who created which poop.

Applications for Education
If they can get past the "hilarity" of the "poop" images and noises, Who Pooped? could be a very engaging way for elementary school students to learn about various mammals.