Just how is a pipette or a pair of tweezers like a bird's beak? 2nd grade students found out in a hands-on activity exploring what types of tools work just like bird beaks to pick up or crack open food! What's the best tool to catch a marshmallow in the air? Could it be a spoon? A pair of tongs? Or perhaps a net works best? This activity is a very graphic way to explore just how bird beaks are uniquely adapted to the particular type of food that the bird eats.
Bird beaks come in all shapes and sizes!
Aly and Maura explore which tool can get floating Cheerios out of a tub of water. They discovered that a strainer worked quite well. Which bird has a beak like a strainer? A flamingo has a beak that acts as a strainer, scooping up tiny water plants and animals leaving the water behind.
Neil, Oliver and Brandon try to get rice grains out of crevasses in a rock that represents picking insects out of rotting logs. Tweezers work quite well for that job. Many small songbirds like warblers have beaks that work just like tweezers.
What about larger fish in water? Just how does a pelican get it's food? Gen and Miranda show how it's done with a slotted spoon.
Jason and Sophie try the different tools at this station as well.
Worms in the mud were represented by seeds in a bin of sand. It was hard to get the seeds out without picking up a lot of the sand! Needle-nosed pliers worked well for this job and are like the long, thin beak of the snipe. Maggie and Luc decided that the spoons don't work very well since the bird would definitely end up with a mouthful of mud!
Keiren and Hayden take a turn at trying the tools at this station.
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