So while students came up with AWESOME investigation ideas to figure out what happens to dead things, Mrs. Brinza fell short. Despite going to the forest preserve over the weekend looking for a dead thing to take pictures of, there was nothing dead anywhere. Not a single animal...at least that she could find.
So she turned online and someone (thank goodness!!!) took a timelapse video of an animal similar to a raccoon, a badger! We watched the video multiple times and not only did it confirm some of the things we were thinking happened to the raccoon, it also brought up MANY more wonderings!
So she turned online and someone (thank goodness!!!) took a timelapse video of an animal similar to a raccoon, a badger! We watched the video multiple times and not only did it confirm some of the things we were thinking happened to the raccoon, it also brought up MANY more wonderings!
Dead badger picked clean
A time-lapse video of a roadkill badger being recycled. Different speeds. One or two gaps. Natural light. (Warning: British law says you shouldn't remove dead badgers from roads. If you do and you are found in possession of the badger's corpse, you might be prosecuted for badger-baiting. Daft? Yes.
Between the two classes, we came up with the following reasons behind what was causing the badger to change over time:
With all these conflicting ideas, and lots of new questions, we're also seeing how our original investigation ideas might need to be expanded.
Wow, we've got a lot to ask and figure out!
- Flies were eating the badger.
- Birds were eating the badger.
- Wind was blowing parts of it around.
- Rain breaks the body down (overnight).
- Maggots cause change.
- Crows bothered its skin off.
- Flies take the fur off.
- Water rots it.
- Badger is just getting old.
- It disintegrates into the ground.
- Larvae eat the badger.
- Body melts into the ground.
- Body infiltrates into the ground.
- Ants eat the body
- Biodegrades faster after animals start eating it.
- Ants carry part of the body off somewhere else.
- Body just rots
- Animals eat the insides, then the body collapses
- Warm weather causes changes.
With all these conflicting ideas, and lots of new questions, we're also seeing how our original investigation ideas might need to be expanded.
Wow, we've got a lot to ask and figure out!