Last week in our dinosaur unit we learnt that Stegosaurus, our dinosaur of the week, was a herbivore and ingested stones known as gastroliths (a bit like hens ingesting gravel), which helped to break down the tough plant material. This was a glaring opportunity to experiment and investigate a bit further.
Equipment for each child
- two Ziploc bags, one labeled with stones and one labeled without stones
- Seven good sized stones from the garden
- Lots of vegetation from the garden
- Timer
- Water (2 cups)
Hypothesis
Method
- Place an equal amount of vegetation in each of the two bags.
- Add a cup of water to one of them, zip it up.
- Set the timer at 3 minutes.
- Have the child agitate the bag as much as they can during that three minutes.
- Add a cup of water to the second bag and place the seven stones inside and do the same, agitating it for three minutes
Results
Conclusion
For lots more inspiration feel free to visit my dinosaur pinterest board: