how do dinosaurs digest their food zoology land animals science 1st

How did dinosaurs digest food?

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Little kids love dinosaurs and my kids are no exception to that rule.  So anytime I can bring a bit of dinosaur knowledge into their science lessons it’s a big hit.  This time we looked at how did dinosaurs digest food?

This experiment can work equally well for birds or dinosaurs since it is theorized both have stones in their stomach to aid digestion and of course, this is a great zoology lesson.

how do dinosaurs digest their food

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Materials needed to find out how dinosaurs digest their food

2 plastic bags* per kid (you really want the freezer bag because it’s thicker and more sturdy), a couple of handfuls of leaves, several small rocks, we also used our junior notebooking pages for Apologia Land Animals* and the Apologia Land Animals book*

Let find out how dinosaurs digest their food

 

I’m sure this is going to end well

A post shared by Ticia (@ticiam) on

While you spend a few minutes cleaning (or that’s my claim) send your kids outside to gather the materials from the backyard.  Where I’m sure they did not spend all their time balancing on boards from their swings………  Eventually, they’ll wander back in and have to go back outside because they actually forgot the rocks and leaves.

It really is a wonder I didn’t have more ER trips than I did when my kids were little because sights like this were not uncommon.

Create two bags, one bag has a handful of small rocks and leaves.  In the other bag just put the leaves.

gizzard experiment watermark

Then spend 10 minutes kneading each bag.  It is obviously best to do this while leaning back in your chair with your feet up on the desk.  Or so claims Batman.  He also claims to never need a shirt…… [Future Ticia here, this is why I instituted the rule: if you’ve left your room you must wear a shirt]

bird gizzard experiment results

At the end compare your two bags.  If you haven’t cheated at all, then the one with the rocks in it should be more mashed up and destroyed-looking.  Two of my kids that was the case, and we couldn’t really figure out why it didn’t work like that for the third.  Our best guess was the rocks she chose were ridiculously small and smooth.  Best guess though.

Finally write down your results in your handy dandy supery dupery notebook (yes I may have watched a lot of Blues Clues* with the kids, which is apparently free on Amazon Prime Streaming* right now).

notebooking for how do dinosaurs digest their food

Here are Superman’s observations: It’s hard to chew with no rocks.  It is big.  It’s hard with lots of leaves.

IN all seriousness, playful tone of post aside (note to self, writing while tired may not be the best decision, [Future Ticia here, I haven’t learned this lesson years in the future]), this had some real procedure behind this.

how do dinosaurs digest their food zoology land animals science 1st

We stopped and looked at the difference between a control (no rocks) and an experiment (with rocks).  We did not all get the same results.  Rarely do true experiments give the exact same results because of human error.  If you measure a chemistry project wrong it won’t work.

Princess discovered her project did not get the desired results because she did not follow directions.  Superman learned not to overfill and being silly can backfire.  Batman learned Mommy gets annoyed if you don’t wear shirts, but that’s aside from the subject.

The science behind how dinosaurs digest their food

how do dinosaurs digest their food hands on science for kids

Dinosaurs digest their food using a gizzard (or so paleontologists theorize).  A gizzard is the same item that birds use to help digest their food.  In the gizzard, the dinosaur has some rocks that tumble about and help the dinosaur with digestion.

More dinosaur learning

As I came in to update this post, I realized this was actually part of a few dinosaur projects we were doing, and I should probably add those in here in case you too are learning about dinosaurs:

Let’s see what science other people did this week:

Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously.  Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve (on my now defunct Science Sunday linkie), so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.

  • Over at Live and Learn Farm she shared two posts about compasses, the second one is about orienteering, and it’s a great idea to incorporate into your nature study.  The first is how to make a compass.
  • The Tiger Chronicle shared the Italian Disaster, all about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  I love cross-subject learning, so this made me happy.  Even happier (and insanely jealous when she WENT to Pompeii!).
  • The Homeschool Scientist shared the different types of clouds (Future Ticia 2023 says that post has been deleted, sadly).  I’m also featuring her because if you don’t know she has a great blog for people interested in science, and this week has a bunch of giveaways ending TODAY! (but a few I don’t want you to enter because I want to win).

Get some more science fun here


Comments

14 responses to “How did dinosaurs digest food?”

  1. Thanks for hosting! I totally just linked up your own post! lol Thanks again for sharing it!

    1. Expect a hilarious and silly comment when I get there.

    2. Looking forward to it; although there is really no reason for you to visit your own post! 😛

  2. I really like this experiment and want to try it. {You would be constantly annoyed at our house if you get annoyed if they don’t wear shirts. LOL}

    1. It’s not so much the lack of shirts, more of the belief he NEVER needs to wear one, even if there are guests over.

  3. Lula B Avatar
    Lula B

    Looks like they had lots of fun with the wood on the swings… I must show that pic to my kids. Always looking for more stuff to keep them busy out there! Interesting experiment – I’m learning, as ever. Thanks for being our wonderful host.

    1. You’re welcome! 🙂
      That picture gave me a few scares, because the boards are from our old fence, so I’m sure they are full of rusty nails and lots of splinters.

  4. What a fun back garden!!
    Thanks for hosting and have a great week!

  5. Very fun experiment with unexpected results 🙂 I like the science notebook!

    1. We love our science notebooks.

  6. What a great experiment! Can’t wait to try it with our kids. Thanks for the mention of the giveaways at The Homeschool Scientist!

  7. Now I’ve got to think about dinosaurs with rocks in their gizzards. We got to sit in on a lecture by paleontologist Jack Horner this week. He challenged us to think of dinosaurs in different ways – so this is an interesting added tidbit of information to mull over.

  8. maryanne @ mama smiles Avatar
    maryanne @ mama smiles

    Love that you have them doing experiments with controls, and writing up results.

  9. Ok that is a cool experiment!!

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