BACKGROUND:

Students have learned in the previous  units about owls and how they eat other organisms in their environment. The environment in which an owl lives has to  support not only the owls, but the animals that the owl eats.  If the environment is altered by natural disaster or by other organisms, it can lead to a removal of the species.  

When humans live in an area they usually alter their surroundings. Many organisms are forced to leave their environment because their local environment may have been altered.    Problems will arise if a society does not think about how they  impacts their local  environment. 

Students need to discover what impact humans have made on their local environment.  Owls especially are forced out of an area as humans enter.  Humans eradicate little organisms when they cement or asphalt areas for roads and houses.  Many urban areas are not good habitat for owls anymore.

This is a good opportunity to see how owls have been affected in your area and why.   

PROCEDURE:

1. Read the poem, "Owl Pellet Party." 
    
2. Ask students to interpret what the poem is saying.   Use this as a springboard to ask students about the local environment they live in, and see if it can predict if there are owls living in their community.
   
3. You may want to do a search on your local newspaper's site on owls to see if there is any environmental news on the local habitat.  
     
4. If you have access to the Internet, you can have children look for stories on owls.  They can also ask their parents or grandparents if they remember the local area with owls.  Ask students to bring this information back to class and have a discussion on the local owl environment. 
     
5. You may want students to write a poem on what they have learned about owls.